Wonderella (IP) – Part One

“Chuck Charming, the multi-million dollar philanthropist is throwing a big Christmas charity bash at his enormous Tudor mansion”, said Ma Ugly, her jowls wobbling as she giggled evilly, “I managed to swipe some invites for me and my girls so we can rob him and all his filthy rich guests of all their lovely money”.

“That’s truly, truly awful”, said Cindy, glaring at her stepmother, “Somebody ought to report you to the police you old hag!”.

“I thought you’d say that, you ungrateful child”, said Ma Ugly, slamming her fist down on her office desk, “That’s why you’ll be locked in your room all evening, where you can’t get up to any of your mischief”.

Ma Ugly pressed a buzzer on her desk and the door of her office opened as two of her heavies
entered.

“Charlie! Buttons!”, she ordered, “Take Miss Ellis to her room, lock her in and make sure she doesn’t escape, got it?!”.

“Gee, Miss Cindy”, said Buttons, seizing hold of Cindy’s right arm gently, “Like, I’m really sorry we gotta do this to you”.

“That’s alright, Buttons”, replied Cindy, smiling sweetly, “You’re just following orders, I guess”.

“Button it, Buttons”, snapped the flint faced Charlie, grimacing and grabbing tightly upon Cindy’s left arm before leading her, forcefully, along a corridor to her room.

“Now”, said Ma Ugly, rubbing her gnarled, old hands together with glee, “With Little Miss Goody Two Shoes out of the way, it’s time to get down to business”.

“Agatha! Brunhilda! Get into my office at once”, she yelled.

The door of Ma Ugly’s office opened and she saw her two ugly daughters enter; the scrawny, thin and rat faced Agatha and her gluttonous, fat and pig faced sister, Brunhilda, her face covered in chocolate from having just devoured one of the many big bars of chocolate that she always kept hidden around her person.

“Ah, my lovely sweet, pretty little daughters”, said Ma Ugly adoringly, “We’re all going to a lovely party at the house of Billionaire Chuck Charming”.

“Oh my, will there be lots of famous people there?”, asked Agatha, who loved famous people and longed to be one.

“Will there be lots of food there?”, asked Brunhilda, chomping into another big bar of chocolate.

“Yes,yes!”, said their mother, irritably, “But forget about those things. What’s important is that there will be simply bags and bags of money!”.

Cindy sat on her slab like bed in her jail cell like room and sighed as the metal door of her prison clanged shut.

“If only my father hadn’t married that witch Ma Ugly after Mother died. I wouldn’t be her prisoner now and she wouldn’t have gotten hold of daddy’s fortune”, thought Cindy glumly, picking up a copy of her favourite magazine ‘Superhero Monthly’ and gazing at the handsome costumed hero on the cover, “If only I was a superhero like my hero, Captain Courageous then I’d sort out my gorgon of a stepmother, her hideous daughters and the whole Ugly gang”.

“Girls today!”, said an elderly female voice from behind Cindy, “Tut-tut! In my day, young girls all wanted to be princesses not Superheroes”.

Cindy turned and, to her surprise, saw an old but plump and jolly looking lady in a sparkling ball gown with some sort of wand in her right hand, tutting and shaking her head.

“Who are you? And how did you get into my cell? “, asked an astonished Cindy.

“Why Cindy, haven’t you ever read any fairytales?”, asked the woman.

“Uh? No. My mom used to read me bed time stories but she died when I was very young. I usually only read comic books, the ones that Buttons smuggles in for me”, said Cindy, holding up a copy of Superhero monthly.

“Well then, let me introduce myself”, said the old lady taking a seat beside Cindy on her slab like bed, “I am your Fairy Godmother and I have come to bust you out of here so that you can go to the ball and marry the handsome prince”.

“Cindy was a little shocked by this, “Uhh? I don’t really know if I want to marry anyone”, she said.

“Well, that’s because you haven’t met him yet”, said her Fairy Godmother, “But, when you do, believe me, you will fall madly, passionately in love with him”.

“How do you know?”, asked Cinderella, “What if we have nothing in common?”.

“I know”, said the old woman, “Because that’s what always happens in fairy tales”.

Cindy was beginning to wonder whether this old lady wasn’t a little bit cracked in the head
although maybe it was Cindy who was a little bit stir crazy from being locked up in her little room every day. Maybe the old woman was just some sort of crazy hallucination.

“I am not a hallucination”, said the Fairy Godmother, offended, reading her thoughts, “I am a magical being and I’m here to give you a very special kind of makeover. Now are you really sure that you wouldn’t rather be a beautiful fairy tale princess instead of some silly Superhero?”.

“Absolutely positively sure”, said Cindy, “I mean how is a fairy tale princess going to stop a gang of armed robbers. My stepmother is planning on robbing everyone at Chuck Charming’s party”.

“Well then”, said the old woman, waving her magic wand back and forth, “Much as I deplore such things, 'By all the powers of fairy magic, I transform you into a superhero'. You are no longer
just ordinary Cynthia Ellis, you are costumed female crime fighter, Wonderella!”.

Suddenly, Cindy felt a strange, electric tingling sensation all over and, looking down at her body saw her old, moth-eaten, ragged dress begin to glow a bright and shocklng shade of pink and, before she could blink twice, her old dress had become a pink, skin-tight, lycra superhero costume complete with matching mask and high-heeled, thigh-high crystal boots.

“Wow!”, said Cyndi, amazed.

“Wow indeed, young lady”, said her Fairy Godmother proudly, “From now on you shall have the powers of a costumed superhero but be warned, whatever you must do you had better get done before the clock strikes twelve, for when midnight comes you will lose all your powers and your pretty pink costume will turn back into a drab and grey, ragged little dress, understand?”.

“Yes”, said Wonderella a.k.a Cynthia Ellis, nodding and noticing that her hair that had been short and straight was now long and wavy and glamorous.

“Good luck then Wonderella”, said her Fairy Godmother, waving her wand three times and
vanishing.