Shortcuts

A paranormal superhero story with a supernatural twist

How to train a superhero

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Shortcuts
by Terry Volkirch

Chapter 7

Sleep didn't come easily to Lester that night. He couldn't stop thinking about how much his life had changed in the past month, and how much it seemed related to his new teacher and new friend, Erin. He didn't drift off until well after midnight, and once he did, it didn't take long to feel some insistent nudging through the Akashic records.

"Stop," his dream self said. "Just stop, Mister Guile. I'm going to wander on my own tonight. I need a break from you."

The nudging stopped as suddenly as it began, and Lester began his wandering. He'd recently worked out that the records seemed to form layers according to a rough timeline. Older records seemed lower somehow and he dove down through them, looking for some of the earliest, most primitive paranormal abilities. In spite of Mister Guile's last hint about learning telepathy and the answers that might come from reading minds, he didn't feel ready for something like that.

The boy continued to dive and drift, absorbing skills like hunting mastodons with spears that were tipped with well-crafted stone arrowheads. The knowledge was pretty much useless but he still felt like he was on the right track to something great, something life changing. Intuition guided him in place of Mister Guile, and just before his alarm clock went off, he found a most amazing paranormal ability. He found shapeshifting, and he greedily absorbed everything about it just in time. The smile on his face as he opened his eyes that morning brightened his future like nothing else.

'I had no idea such a thing was possible,' he thought. 'Now I just have to figure out what to do with it.'

He felt tempted to try changing his appearance, just to make sure he could do it, but he resisted. He didn't have time. He had to get ready for school.

The boy wandered into the kitchen and found the house deserted, his mother and father already having left for work. As he sat down to gobble up a large bowl of cold cereal, he didn't notice his control faltering. He thought of his mother's blonde hair and his newly learned ability kicked in, causing his hair to slowly lighten in color. By the time he left his house for the bus stop, his hair had lightened to the same shade of blonde as his mother.

The bus driver didn't seem to notice his new hair color. No one did until Brian got on the bus at his stop.

"Dude. What's up with your hair?"

"Huh?" Lester said, looking up at his friend. "What do you mean?"

"You dyed your hair, dude. What the fuh?!"

Lester tried not to panic, but he quickly turned to see a faint reflection of himself in the bus window and gasped. His hair was definitely blonde. 'I can't leave it like this,' he thought. 'But what do I tell Brian?'

On impulse, he bent over in his seat, trying to cover his hair as much as possible with his hands. "Just a second," he said as his ability kicked in and turned his hair back to his normal brown color. When he sat back up, Brian's eyes bulged in his head.

"Dude!" he hissed in a loud whisper. "I did not just see that."

Lester gave him a wry grin. "You did. I've been going through a lot of weirdness lately and it's past time I filled you in."

No one other than Brian noticed Lester's hair color change on the bus. The bus wasn't very full and no one else sat close to the two friends so it was fairly easy to be secretive.

Lester whispered quietly to Brian, and after a few demonstrations besides the hair color change, he had his friend convinced of the truth. When Brian felt himself rise a couple inches in his seat from telekinesis and slowly lower back down, he gasped and said, "Enough! I believe you!"

"Finally," Lester said quietly. "I needed someone to talk to about this stuff. It's getting to be a bit much to handle by myself."

Brian sulked a little. "Why didn't you tell Erin? You two are certainly close enough."

"Hey. Don't be like that. I told you first. You're my closest friend. Okay?"

"Yeah, dude. Sorry."

Lester decided not to tell Brian his suspicions about Erin and Mister Guile. He still wasn't sure about them himself anyway and he felt that his paranormal abilities were more of a concern for the moment. He didn't know what to do or think about all of his abilities.

Brian gave it some thought and had to say it. "So you got all of them after only a couple weeks?"

Lester nodded.

"And you keep getting more? Like last night?"

Again, Lester nodded.

"Dude. I think we both know where this is going. You're a superhero."

"What?!"

Brian shushed his friend and nervously looked around. The bus driver gave them a sour look but other than that, no one seemed to notice or care.

"Do I have to spell it out for you? Super strength. Super healing. Flying. Telekinesis. Danger sense. Shapeshifting. You're a fuckin' superhero, dude."

"Hey," Lester said, mildly upset. "Watch your language, please."

Brian looked a little disgusted. "Definitely a hero. No danger of villainy here."

"Whatever," he responded, then spoke more quietly. "But now that I think of it, you're right. Wow. Cool." Then, more loudly, he added, "Oh! And you know what they say about great power."

"Dude. Please. Don't say it."

"With great power comes great responsibility."

"You're such a geek."

Lester smiled. "Takes one to know one."

"Yeah, dude. You got me."

The two friends had only a little more time to talk before the bus arrived at school. They talked about costumes and secret identities before they left the bus, visited their lockers and continued on to their separate classrooms.

* * *

Mister Guile perched his rear on the front edge of his desk, scowled briefly at Lester and launched into a dull, normal lecture that day. Erin relaxed and Lester daydreamed of being a superhero. It was slight respite after a long string of strange days.

Advanced Literature progressed nicely through the selection of sonnets and moved on to A Midsummer Night's Dream. Lester found the play to be quite amusing, especially when Puck magically transforms Bottom's head into a donkey's head. Poor Bottom doesn't even notice the change and hilarity ensues.

The play put Lester in a good mood, but the mood slowly eroded as lunch time approached. He soon found himself sitting next to Erin at their usual lunch table and speculation about her began to plague him.

"Erin?"

"Hm?" she said, her mouth half full of sweet corn.

"Just where exactly do you live? Another dimension? Another planet? Cloud nine? You never said."

She quickly swallowed her mostly chewed corn and gave him a nervous laugh, but otherwise ignored the question.

"Okay then," he said. "I noticed that you seem to disappear into mist when we separate after school. That's a convenient way to hide where you're going. Why don't you just do it right away? Then you wouldn't have to worry about Big Jim."

She stared at him for several seconds before answering. "I can't do it right away. It takes time. And I also don't want anyone to see it. You weren't supposed to notice."

"Well, I did notice. But I suppose it's too closely related to my first question. I keep trying to ignore the strangeness but it won't let me. You know, like how the more you try not to think of something, the more you end up thinking about it."

She sighed. "I'm sorry, Lester. I really am. But I can't tell you any more. Please." Her eyes pleaded with him.

"I'm sorry too," he told her. "I keep pushing for answers when you made it plain you want to keep secrets."

"Aw. Lester. Don't be that way."

"What way? You mean upset? I think it's perfectly natural to be upset when you know virtually everything about me and I know so little about you. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were stalking me before school started."

"We all have our secrets, Lester. You haven't been telling me about your browsing of the Akashic records."

That stopped him cold. "How do you know about that? How can you even know?"

She squeaked, having let something slip again. "Please pretend you didn't hear that."

"It's too late. I wish I had told you now. I could've used someone to talk to about it. It's getting a little crazy."

"Yes, I know." She quickly took another bite of sweet corn and turned away while she chewed.

"Well, I told Brian. He's going to help me."

Erin squeaked again and shook her head.

"It's too late for that too," he said quietly.

She managed to swallow without choking and speak before too long. "I'd help if I could but I'm not allowed to interfere, not directly. I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, Erin. Really," he said, getting up from the table before mentally adding, 'I love you anyway.'

* * *

Lester walked Erin partway home after school as usual but they didn't talk at all. Both of them were afraid of having any conversation since their last one in the lunch room had been so awkward. Instead, the boy gently took her hand in his and she let him. They swung their clasped hands together as they walked for the few blocks before they parted, and after they parted, he took half a dozen steps and then turned to watch her disappear into a foggy mist as he had several times before. That's when he got another surprise, even better than holding hands. He saw her looking at him, smiling and waving as she faded away, right before his eyes. His step and mood both lightened after that.

The happy boy got home, blew through his homework, had dinner with his parents and dug up what little money he had so he could buy a gi the next day before his aikido class. In like the first time since forever, he actually looked forward to shopping. That's because Erin asked to come along so she could get her gi.

He tried not to think about how she could come up with with such lovely clothes and yet couldn't seem to handle getting a gi. He tried and failed, all the way to the large park by his home. As he once said, trying not to think about something almost guarantees that you'll think about it, yet in spite of all of his remarkable mental control and clarity of thought, he failed to come to any reasonable conclusions.

'Maybe that's because the truth is unreasonable,' he thought.

His intuition teased him with several versions of the truth - partial truth, half truth, full truth - but he refused to accept any of it, and he didn't have time to debate himself. He had other plans that evening.

Brian met up with Lester in the park, and once there, in the cover of darkness, the two boys were to do some brainstorming for superhero training. But first, Lester had to try out his new ability.

"Dude," Brian said, shining a small LED flashlight in his friend's face. "Not funny."

Lester had changed his face and hair to look exactly like his friend. "What's the matter?" he said, using Brian's voice. "Don't you like having a twin?"

"Really not cool."

Lester laughed.

"Dude. How about changing into a hot girl?"

"You wish."

It was Brian's turn to laugh.

"Keep it up," Lester told him as his face returned to normal, "and I'll change into your mother."

Brian sputtered a bit and quickly shut up. The two of them then got serious about training, starting with some exercises to try and scenarios to think about. A superhero had to be ready for just about anything.

"How about bullets?" Brian asked. "Have you thought about how you'd avoid getting shot? You're not invulnerable. Right?"

"Yeah," Lester agreed. "I have my danger sense to help me avoid them in the first place. And I think my telekinesis is strong enough to block them. If one does still manage to hit me, I have my healing. I think I've got it covered."

Brian shook his head. "I've got one word for you: Machine gun."

"That's two words, dork."

"Whatever. It shoots bullets. Lots of 'em. I don't think you'd be able to avoid all of them and if enough hit you all at once, they could damage you faster than you could heal. Dude. You could die."

"Yeah. Maybe I should wait for more abilities."

Brian shrugged. "You should probably wait before you go out fighting crime. But you can still train with what you've got."

Lester agreed and the training resumed. At one point, the budding superhero created an invisible, telekinetic shield while Brian threw rocks at it and tried to break through by hitting it with a large stick. Nothing penetrated the shield as long as Lester kept it going. That boosted his confidence, especially after he realized he could surround himself with the shield to protect himself from all directions. Not even a sniper with a high-powered rifle could take him out when he had his shield.

Brian shook his head. "Maybe I was wrong. Maybe you are ready to go out in the field. Damn."

Lester flinched at the swearing but didn't say anything. He was too giddy after practicing with his shield. He could protect himself while using more telekinesis to subdue anyone just outside of the shield. And he could fly over in case of land mines or any other kind of trap on the ground. With a spherical shield surrounding him in the air, he could do wonders.

"Wait a minute," Brian said, interrupting Lester's moment. "I thought of something else."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I've got one word for you again: nuclear weapon."

Lester rolled his eyes. "Yeah. Because all criminals have one of those in their back pocket."

Both boys laughed.

"Seriously, dude. You should be a superhero."

"Yeah," Lester said, his eyes glazing over as he thought about all of the wondrous possibilities, all of the people he could help, and perhaps a certain girl he might impress.

* * *

Lester had only four words to say to the Dark Librarian that night. "I want a break." The boy then went on to have some entertaining dreams that involved lots of flying, super strength and flattering newspaper headlines about him. The world's first superhero appeared and no one's life would ever be the same. He thought of it as a dream, but it might just as well have been a preview of things to come.

Most of the time, he saved a certain girl from various villains and natural disasters. The girl looked very much like Erin but she never gave him her name in the dream. Instead, she thanked him with a toe-curling kiss on the lips and left him stunned while she went to get into more trouble, like she wanted to be saved again so she could repeat the kiss.

After waking up, the morning seemed as dull as the dreams were fun. Breakfast, a bus ride and school couldn't compare to saving a beautiful redhead and getting kissed by her, over and over. Brian tried to engage his friend in conversation on the bus but it was hopeless and both friends zoned out for most of the ride to school.

Time dragged all morning and into lunch, as Erin still had little to say to Lester. When the two of them got to the lunch room, they concentrated mostly on eating, especially since Erin dared to try something new again. She seemed fascinated by shredded chicken tacos and Lester simply enjoyed watching her pick them apart and try to decide how best to eat them. He should've suggested that she use her hands but instead he watched with amusement as she insisted on trying to use a knife and fork, with predictable results. The crunchy corn shells broke up and sent bits of lettuce, tomato and chicken in all directions. The inexperienced girl did finally realize that her hands worked better than any silverware but it was obvious that she didn't like it. She didn't like to get her hands dirty.

In a lot ways, Erin made a good, stereotypical girl, just good enough to keep Lester interested, and hoping for a chance, however slim, of moving beyond friendship.

During school, the chemistry between Erin and Lester remained luke warm at best. It wasn't until after school that the mood between the boy and girl heated up. They walked to Lester's house together since they had their aikido class that night, and long before they arrived at their destination, Erin found herself unable to keep from talking about shopping and their upcoming trip to the mall to buy aikido uniforms. She wanted to know all about shopping.

Lester tried not to roll his eyes but at least he appreciated her enthusiasm. One thing kept bothering him however. 'How could she not know anything about shopping?!'

The girl had a lot of very nice, flattering clothes. She wore light make up every day and had her hair done up in many different styles. Either she was rich and had others pamper her, or, like he strongly suspected, she had some magical way of dressing up, like Cinderella and her fairy godmother. Even if it was some sort of alien technology, it could be advanced enough to seem magical. The idea of aliens disturbed the boy somewhat so he leaned towards the truly magical. Magical beings were often much more pleasant than aliens in his mind.

After the zillionth question, since she hadn't been waiting for answers and he hadn't been paying much attention, he finally spoke and interrupted her. "I hope you realize that I know very little about shopping. I'm a boy. We're not supposed to like shopping."

That stopped Erin for a moment. Her eyes glazed over for a moment before she spoke. "Oh. I see. I guess I'll try asking your mother then."

Lester shook his head. "That might not be a good idea. She'll expect you to already know the joys of shopping, especially with that dress you're wearing." He looked her up and down admiringly, causing her to look down and blush.

He laughed at her reaction.

"Hey!" she said. "Don't laugh! Seriously, Lester. I hate to ask this of you, especially after our awkward conversation yesterday, but I'm beginning to appreciate the need to talk things out and I don't have anyone to talk to except you."

The boy's heart melted. "Sorry. Go ahead," he urged.

She gave him a faint smile. "Thanks," she told him and then dove into how emotional she felt herself getting. She cried so easily and couldn't understand why, and that made her want to cry more. Embarrassment also began to bother her.

"Why does my face get so warm?" she asked, referring to when she blushed.

Lester shrugged. "I don't know the exact reason why people blush but I have to say it's cute."

"Oh!" She playfully slapped his arm.

"You might not think so, but you're really getting the hang of being a girl. And girls are known to be very emotional, more so than boys. I don't really understand why. I guess it's just hormones or something."

"I see," she said quietly, trying to mask her disappointment.

Lester could tell she wasn't satisfied so he kept at it. "It's the human condition. You're human so you get to experience emotions as well as being able to see, hear, touch, taste and feel. Right?"

She smiled. "Yes. I suppose that's true. I've enjoyed a lot of the flavors and textures of food."

"I've noticed," he said, smirking. "You've been happy, sad and even a little angry, like when you debate Mister Guile."

She gave him a wry grin and her very human response suddenly triggered a concerning thought in her friend's mind.

"Um," he said, tensing up. "It's been nearly three weeks since you started school. Is that how long you've been… um… around?"

The girl looked a little confused at first but she soon figured out what he meant. "I was around for five days before I started school, you know, to get used to everything, just in case. Why do you ask?"

Lester added the days up in his head and answered. "You do know about periods, right? Please tell me you know about periods."

"Are you teasing me? Of course I know all about punctuation."

The boy groaned. "Check again. Whatever your source is, check again, please."

Her eyes briefly glazed over before she spoke again. "Okay. Do you mean periods of time? Wavelengths?"

He barely managed to suppress the urge to slap his forehead. "There's something else about girls that you need to know. Look up menstruation and please don't ask me what to do about it."

Erin's eyes glazed over again and it wasn't long before her already light skin noticeably paled and she asked, "Am I sexually mature? Am I going to bleed soon?"

The boy looked up at the sky and cried out, "Why me?" He then turned back to the girl, his voice still loud as he spoke to her. "Look at yourself, Erin. Of course you're sexually mature."

"Please, Lester. Don't raise your voice. I'm scared. Will it hurt? I don't want to bleed."

The boy took some deep, calming breaths. "Okay. Look. I know it's your first, but girls a lot younger than you seem to handle their first easily enough. I'm sure you'll be okay."

"Don't they have their mothers to help them through it?" she asked, her voice quavering.

"Well, yeah. But there's no way my mother or anyone else will believe it's your first. We can't ask anyone for help. You're on your own."

She stood there, her lower lip quivering and her eyes threatening tears. "But I've still got you," she told him.

He moved to gently hug her and murmur in her ear. "I'm sorry, Erin, but I just can't relate."

That got a strange reaction from her. She broke up the hug, pushing him back with a look of determination that unsettled the boy. "There is one option that we haven't explored."

"Uh. I don't know if I like the sound of that."

"Please, Lester. I need you to consider using your shapeshifting. I need your help."

"Shapeshifting?!" he said with a squeak.

"I know all about your paranormal abilities. Remember? If you were a girl, you might relate better, and you could come with me into a rest room to help me through it."

"Are you out of your mind?!"

"No," she said, her eyes starting to threaten tears again. "I'm desperate. Scared and desperate. Are you going to help me or not?"

"I don't know, Erin. That's pretty extreme."

"I thought we were friends," she said, turning to face away from him. "I need a friend and I'm asking you for help."

"I still don't know."

"Isn't that what friends do? Help each other?"

"You're asking an awful lot."

"Please! I need your help!" She closed her eyes tightly but it didn't stop the tears from leaking out. She stood there, trembling and crying, and Lester couldn't take it any more.

"Okay!" he said. Then, more quietly, "Okay." He moved over to hug her again and she clung to him with gratitude and relief while she cried herself out.

* * *

© 2015 by Terry Volkirch. This work may not be replicated in whole or in part by any means electronic or otherwise without the express consent of the Author (copyright holder). All Rights Reserved. This is a work of Fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional and any resemblance to real people or incidents past, present or future is purely coincidental.