Shortcuts

A paranormal superhero story with a supernatural twist

The shadow agency strikes!

Comments have been blocked for this story but kudos and private messages are always welcome. Even highly critical private messages are welcome. I don't mind criticism when it's private.

Shortcuts
by Terry Volkirch

Chapter 20

Seeing a girl in place of his son shocked Matthew to his core. Susan prepared him for it but words were one thing, seeing another. Still, it was good for him. He needed to be knocked out of his bigoted comfort zone.

Lester's, or actually, Sarah's worried parents didn't know what to do about their unconscious child. They didn't think they could take their part-time daughter to the hospital. They didn't trust the lack of medical history for the girl. All they could do was helplessly watch and wait.

In an encouraging display of paternal instinct, Matthew lifted the girl up and gently placed her in her bed before being shooed out of the room. Susan partially undressed the girl and tucked her into bed, then kept watch over her, sitting next to the bed in the tired, old desk chair. The worried mother held her daughter's hand and hummed songs to pass the time.

Sarah's father continued to play a proper role, bringing in water and snacks for his wife. He even took a turn keeping vigil while Susan went out to take care of a few things, including calling in sick for her daughter. The concerned man didn't hold his daughter's hand or hum any tunes, but he did talk to her a little. He'd heard that people in comas could sometimes hear when people talked to them.

"I'm sorry, Lester. Or Sarah. Whoever you are right now. I've been a bit of a jerk. I don't always like myself but I can't seem to help it sometimes. Anyway, I hope you're okay. Please be okay. I… I love you."

Sarah smiled in her sleep but didn't otherwise stir. Her reaction was enough to ease her father's tortured soul though. He sighed and quietly waited.

Meanwhile, in the living room, Susan talked to Stella on the phone. The store manager sounded very concerned. She knew that Sarah was also Golden Girl so she knew it wasn't likely that anything bad could happen to the girl, at least not when it came to her health. Any maladies should've been healed before they became a problem.

The older woman decided it was time to tell Susan how she was involved so she could offer some relief. She said that she'd consult with Erin and call her back in a few minutes. Susan gratefully accepted the help and anxiously picked up the phone before it could finish its first ring.

"Hello? Stella?"

"Yes, it's me. I'm sending Erin over with someone who might be able to help. We have friends in high places who have some experience with this sort of thing."

"Thank you, Stella. I'm worried sick."

"I know, dear. But if anything can be done for Sarah, I'm sure Erin and our friend will make sure it happens."

"When can I expect them?"

Just then, there was a knock at the door.

Stella chuckled. "I believe that's them at your door. I'll let you go now. Bye bye."

An amazed Susan hung up and rushed to the front door to find Erin and a tall young man with blonde hair and the most amazing blue eyes. The man seemed to radiate a strange energy and Susan suddenly felt energized and ever so relaxed at the same time. She smiled and welcomed the two of them into the house, slowly leading the way to Lester's bedroom.

Matthew quickly stood up when Erin and the strange man entered the bedroom. "Hello. I'm Matthew," he said to the man, holding his hand out to shake.

The other man smiled and Matthew slowly lowered his hand. "I am Michael," the man said. "Thank you for welcoming me into your home."

Matthew joined his wife in the hallway just outside the bedroom, watching through the doorway with smiles on their faces. They were lost in the ethereal beauty of the moment.

Erin thoughtfully moved the old chair back to the desk to make room. Then she and Michael knelt by the bed, with Michael silently examining the stricken girl in her bed.

A significant amount of time passed but no one seemed to notice. Sarah's parents didn't. They didn't seem to notice much of anything. It wasn't until Michael and Erin slowly rose to their feet that Susan finally roused herself and asked, "How's my baby girl? Is she going to be okay?"

"I believe so," Michael said. "But there have been changes."

"Changes?"

"She's all girl now."

"I don't understand," Susan cocked her head. "I can see she's a girl."

"I mean all girl in body and spirit. She's no longer a boy in any respect. Please treat her accordingly. I can see that you will but your husband isn't ready."

"Yes, I know. He wasn't raised very well."

"That can be a problem, I know. But with guidance and patience, I believe you will do well."

Erin and Michael left the family in the bedroom and moved down the hallway before pausing in the entry way. Michael turned to Erin, looking her up and down before asking, "Why?"

Erin blushed. "I thought it was a good idea at the time."

Michael slowly shook his head as the pair slowly faded out. Erin's voice faded along with their bodies, saying "Hey. We can't exactly predict the future. Come on. Give me a break…."

Matthew snapped out of his relaxed stupor and moved to join his wife by Sarah's bedside, looking down at the girl.

"You heard?" Susan asked him.

"I heard. Am I really that bad?"

"Sometimes. But I love you anyway."

The concerned parents held hands and looked with love at their daughter, who'd sleep peacefully from that point on until early Sunday morning. The girl dreamed of fluffy baby animals, clothes shopping and handsome teenage boys, and she thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it.

* * *

Sarah woke up Sunday morning feeling completely refreshed and ready for the day. She slipped on her favorite fuzzy lavender bath robe and matching slippers and went out to find her mother already at the dining room table, sipping a cup of coffee.

"Morning, Mom."

"Sarah! Hi! Good morning! How are you feeling?"

"Easy, Mom. I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You don't remember collapsing last night? I was so worried about you! So was your father."

The girl smiled at the attention, but she soon frowned. "Daddy was worried about me? Somehow, that doesn't sound right."

"He loves you, Sarah. Why wouldn't he be worried?"

"Yeah. I know he loves me." She smiled at a recent but still vague memory, but the smile soon left her face. "But I'm confused about something. I remember him yelling at me yesterday for wearing makeup. Since when can't I wear makeup?"

Susan looked concerned and shook her head.

"What's wrong? What is it?"

"Oh, Sarah. You've changed, dear. Something happened and you changed. Erin and one of her special friends came by and told us that you're all girl, in body and spirit."

"Yeah. So?"

"So? That doesn't surprise you?"

"I don't understand. Why would it surprise me? I've always been a girl."

Susan groaned. Apparently, some of Sarah's memories changed along with her brain structure and the concerned mother would have to explain an unpleasant truth. Sarah went to the kitchen to grab a glass of cranberry-cherry juice and returned for a long, difficult talk.

During the talk, Sarah's eyebrows quirked several times but she let her mother continue without interruption. She didn't feel much like talking because it all sounded too fantastic.

When the talk finished, Sarah finally spoke. "I don't believe it. That's crazy."

"What?" Susan asked. "That you're Golden Girl? You don't remember being Golden Girl?"

"No. That's pretty crazy too, but in a good way. I meant that I was ever a boy. I don't believe it."

Susan sighed. "It's true. Think about it. Why else would your father have a fit about you wearing makeup? You were wearing it as your boy self and he couldn't handle it."

"Seriously?!"

"Seriously."

"So. What's my boy self's name? You didn't say."

"Lester."

"Lester? Yuck."

"Hey! Lester is a fine name."

"If you insist. At least I won't have to worry about it now."

Susan's internal warning bells sounded again. "Why do you say that? You still have to go to school as a boy."

Sarah's eyes went wide with shock. "What?! Why?!"

"All the school records say you're a boy. The school system thinks you're a boy. You have to go to school as a boy."

"That's stupid. I'm a girl, Mom. I'm a girl!"

"I know, honey. We'll work something out." She added, muttering more to herself, "We'll have to."

* * *

The new school plan devastated Sarah. She'd still have to go to school as a boy and slowly let everyone know that she was really a girl, trapped in a boy's body. She'd have to pretend to be a trans-girl and would slowly, agonizingly slowly, transition into her real girl self.

By that point, they realized Lester's old identification was no longer valid. Only her identification as Sarah could be used so she could drive and work as Sarah, but she still had to present as a boy at school for the time being. Everyone at school knew her as a boy.

At least she'd be able to get a waiver to get out of her P.E. class. She didn't really need the class to graduate, although she'd miss Erin, unless Erin could also find a way to skip it. She'd have to ask the redhead about it but she was sure it would be easy enough to do.

Skipping P.E. would allow her to keep her girl bits. That helped. She wouldn't have to take hormones or anything. Her own body would slowly feminize her boy parts, and she could occasionally cheat with shapeshifting, replacing any persistent masculine features with their feminine equivalent. She'd have the most complete transition ever and it couldn't happen fast enough for her.

She'd still be able to be herself at home and on the weekends with her shapeshifting ability. Her parents gave her permission to be all girl as long as she wasn't at school. That left her free to shop with Erin and do anything else she pleased as a girl.

She hadn't decided what to do about aikido class. She didn't really need it after learning aikido from the Akashic records. The only reason to go would be to practice with Erin, though there wasn't as much need for Erin to learn since the two girls could stay together after school. Sarah could protect her friend from Big Jim and any other bad boy. She'd have to ask the redhead about that too.

One thing she couldn't ask anyone about was her new gender identity as female. She didn't consciously cause it and had no idea exactly how it happened. Stress obviously played a part in triggering it but she couldn't reproduce the stress and she couldn't figure out how to change back even if she wanted to, and wanting to was definitely not happening. Ever. The girl was stuck as a true girl and didn't care because she couldn't remember being anything but a girl. Sarah only had to get through the rest of high school as a partial boy and she'd be free. But those last several months of high school wouldn't be fun. 'I'm still cursed,' she thought, remembering her apparent curse of clumsiness, even if it was as a girl instead of a boy.

* * *

Erin came over early Sunday afternoon and Sarah begged her mother to borrow the car for some girl time at the mall.

Susan smiled and readily agreed.

Sarah changed clothes, making sure to wear her basic Golden Girl body outfit underneath her clothes, just in case. She applied some makeup at her vanity mirror and the two girls were off to the mall. It was a good day to shop. Both of them had wallets full of money having received a paycheck the Friday before.

As Sarah drove, Erin kept studying her. It started to get bothersome.

"What, Erin?"

"You've changed."

"Duh. I thought you knew everything. I'm all girl now when apparently, I was a boy before. Yuck."

"Yes, Sarah. I can't see any boy in you any more. Interesting."

The driver blushed then. "Does that mean we're not spiritual soul mates any more?"

"You remember that? I'm not sure what you remember from your time as a boy. It's all so confusing."

"I pretty much remember everything except I was a girl instead of a boy in my memories. Everyone else remembers me as a boy but in my head, I was a girl."

"That is so strange."

"I know. Right. But it's true, and I still feel linked to you, Erin. I feel like we have an especially strong bond. It's more than just being like a best friend forever. It's beyond love. It transcends love." Sarah sighed. Describing it seemed an impossible task, but she did a good enough job.

"Do you remember kissing me?" Erin asked.

Sarah blushed.

"I take it that's a yes. Do you remember why you kissed me?"

"I can guess why my boy self would kiss you. You're hot. But me? I was just being playful, and maybe, just maybe, a wee bit bi-curious. I mean, how do you know if you don't try, right?"

The redhead smiled back at her. "I wouldn't know, but I have one last thing to say on the subject. All that I'll say is yes, we're spiritual soul mates and we always will be, now and forever."

Sarah turned on the radio to a station that played the latest dance mixes and the girls spent the rest of the trip letting the music wash over their bodies. They both imagined themselves dancing together to it, and after Sarah parked the car, they stared deeply into each other's eyes, sharing a soul stirring moment.

* * *

After scoring a couple articles of clothing at the mall, the girls settled in at the food court. Sarah considered engaging in conversation with Erin but instead, she couldn't stop her eyes from roaming. She inspected virtually every teenage boy who walked past, testing her attraction to each one.

"Oh, Erin! Look at him." She pointed with her eyes at a tall young man with short, spiky black hair and a brown leather jacket as he walked by. "Isn't he gorgeous?"

Erin looked in the indicated direction but just as quickly looked back her friend, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, yeah. You're not exactly into the physical. Sorry. It's easy to forget. I'm still a slave to my humanity." The playful girl stuck her tongue out at her friend and laughed.

Erin rolled her eyes and shook her head, keeping her thoughts to herself. 'Humans!'

Both of them engaged in light conversation while Sarah continued checking out the boys. They finished picking at their food and headed back to the stores.

"Hey, Erin. Let's stop by Fashion Divinity as long as we're here. I heard Ms. Godwin had something to do with helping me yesterday and I want to thank her."

"Sure, Sarah. Let's. That would be a very nice thing to do."

The girls went off to their place of work, all the while keeping an eye out for a good deal or a pretty dress. It wasn't exactly part of their nature. It was a learned response, but it was one that they enjoyed. It was a good day to shop.

* * *

At Erin's request, Sarah let her stay and talk with Ms. Godwin. That left the superheroine free to go home and patrol from the safety of her bed. She extended her vision with clairvoyance and started her patrol. She also included her clairaudience so she could listen for anything loud and suspicious. The possibility of a shadow agency strike remained in the back of her mind, keeping her ever vigilant.

After her second pass around the city, she noticed a tiny electronics store on fifth street and saw something on most of the television screens in the store that horrified her. A hostage crisis in north Chicago held everyone's attention, including hers. Several armed men dressed all in black held over twenty hostages in a bank. The men appeared to be bank robbers but strangely enough, they didn't make any demands and didn't seem to be too interested in escaping with loads of money. The girl knew a trap when she saw one.

She shapeshifted into her Crystal persona and quickly donned her purple jacket and matching gloves, but she left her hat. It didn't feel quite cold enough for a hat.

"Bye Mom! Bye Dad! I'm off to Chicago to right a wrong!" she called and turned invisible before they could see her off. They arrived in the dining room not long after that, soon enough to get a ghostly hug and see the sliding glass door open, seemingly by itself.

"Be safe, Sarah," her mother told her.

"Ditto," her dad said.

"Thanks. Love you!" her voice told them.

"Love you too!" they shouted back.

The sliding glass door closed and the two parents suddenly turned to each other, both mouthing the same thing. "Chicago?" Then they jumped when the sliding glass door rattled from their daughter's sonic boom.

"To the television!" Susan shouted as she ran to the living room with her husband hot on her heels. They sat together on the couch and turned on the TV. The hostage crisis in Chicago was showing on all of the major news networks so it was easy enough to figure out what got Golden Girl's attention. They held hands to comfort each other and watched the situation unfold. It didn't take long before their daughter arrived.

Matthew's jaw fell open.

"Wow!" Susan said, beaming. "She got to Chicago in less than fifteen minutes. I wonder how fast she was going."

"Too fast," the worried father said, shaking his head.

They turned up the volume and listened as Golden Girl addressed the crowd, floating a dozen feet above them. "I don't believe these men are bank robbers!" she shouted. "I believe they only want to capture me and they might be playing with innocent lives to do so."

Back home, Susan and Matthew gasped while their daughter continued.

"They might be too powerful to keep in jail but I have to put a stop to this nonsense since they might be endangering lives. Please excuse me while I get to work."

The girl floated down to a police officer while taking off her purple jacket and gloves. She asked that he hold them for her and he silently nodded, taking them from her and watching as she moved almost faster than the eye could see up to the bank's front double doors, where she paused.

"I'm coming in!" she shouted. "Shoot anyone at your peril!"

With her telekinetic shield on and her danger sense active, she opened the door and immediately ducked, deflecting several darts that embedded into the glass door. She noted that they were tranquilizer darts, confirming her suspicion.

"That includes me," she said, following up on her warning.

The cameras couldn't record her after that. The world would have to wait to see how it all ended.

The girl, dressed all in black after shedding her purple clothes, kept moving, never giving the men a stationary target. She flew around inside, taking advantage of the tall ceiling to make her movements more unpredictable. The superheroine moved to each man, hitting him hard enough in the stomach to knock the wind out of him and take his weapon. The men were left gasping but without any duct tape to restrain them. The girl figured that they'd have a knife to cut themselves free and she didn't have enough time to spend on any one man to completely disarm him. She wanted to keep moving to keep them all off balance.

Once all of the tranquilizer guns were taken from the men and destroyed, Golden Girl stopped near a front window, standing as a silhouette against the bright sunlight that streamed into the room. She stood there to be close enough for the cameras outside to see that she was okay. She also wanted a good vantage to look for hostages, but, seeing none, she stayed put, waiting to see what was next because she knew there'd be more.

The men didn't disappoint her. They pulled guns out of every nook and cranny and let fly with a hail of rubber bullets, trying to overwhelm her with quantity. The girl almost laughed.

Almost as soon as the shooting started, the bullets slowed down and hovered in mid air like they were frozen in time. They weren't frozen though. They were held in place by telekinesis for a brief moment until they were released to bounce harmlessly on the floor.

The superheroine stood in place, letting the men shoot for a short time while she stopped the bullets. Then she decided to end it, but instead of going around to each man, she reached out with her telekinesis. In a subtle show of strength, she warped the firing pins, making the guns unusable.

The men threw their guns down in disgust, leaving them with their last and most dangerous option. But they had to wait for their leader to give the order to use it.

"Brain scramblers!" a man shouted. "Use the damn brain scramblers, you idiots!"

She didn't like the sound of that. It sounded like something that she couldn't stop with her telekinesis and it almost made her wish that she could read their violent little minds so she could better stop them.

Without waiting to be shot at, she flew up and used her last option. Her danger sense activated to full, giving her wide avenues of escape at first, but soon dwindling to large windows and then narrow crawlspaces as the men better aimed their strange, electromagnetic weapons.

Golden Girl had to go on the defensive, yanking the door off the stairwell with her telekinesis and flying up the stairs to avoid the men.

"Where'd she go?!" the leader shouted.

"South stairwell," a man answered.

"Well?! Go after her!"

"Yes, sir!" several men shouted back before running over to the stairs. The first man over to the doorway peeked in to make sure the coast was clear and then led a team of four men up the stairs.

Golden Girl sat five floors up, using her clairvoyance and clairaudience to spy on the situation below. "Only four men? I was hoping for more. Oh, well." Being well within range of her telekinesis, she used it to slam each of the men into the wall, knocking them out. She made sure they were all breathing and then moved down the stairs so she could easily reach out for more men with her telekinesis. She grabbed each of them one at a time, pulling them into and up the stairwell. When she was sure that she didn't have the leader, she'd knock the man out and go on to the next.

"What the hell is happening?! You morons are getting beaten by a little girl!"

She heard the leader with her clairaudience and finally spotted him with her clairvoyance. The older man cowered behind the front counter of the bank, thinking he was safe, but he yelped like a little boy when she grabbed him with her telekinesis. She picked him up and as she drew him towards the stairwell, she removed every weapon and device on him. She considered removing all of his clothes to make sure but that idea kind of grossed her out.

"Maybe if he wasn't so old," she mused out loud, then giggled.

She moved up another two floors to give her a little privacy and pulled the man up to her to have a little talk. No one followed the man up the stairs but she left her clairvoyance and clairaudience at the base of the stairs just in case.

"Hello there," she said to him. "I believe you know who I am. Care to tell me who you are?"

The man glowered at her and she got a better look at him in the light of the stairwell. His gray hair and weathered face made him look quite a bit older than her father. That surprised her. She didn't expect someone that old working as a field agent.

"I suppose you won't tell me who you work for either," she tried.

More glowering and she finally had enough. She held him a few inches above the current landing and reached all over him with her telekinesis, trying to find where he might be ticklish. When she got the least little reaction, she concentrated on the spot and soon had him crying with laughter.

"Stop! Stop it! This is ridiculous!" he shouted as he laughed.

"Will you talk?"

"Never!"

She considered tickling him some more but she grew bored. "I know you work for the government in some shadow agency. I guess that's good enough for now."

"Good guess," he said, still glowering.

"Oh, it's not a guess. I have sources that would make your head spin and your nose hair curl."

The man raised an eyebrow.

"Too much?" she asked, then giggled. "Well I do have my sources, and they can find out anything and everything about you and your organization."

The man snorted. "You're just an amateur."

"Yeah. That's fair. I haven't been at this very long. So do you mind telling me why you're after me?"

"You're a threat to national security. Why else?"

"Why are such big, strong men so easily threatened? I've been doing nothing but good!"

"You could go bad or something. Then we'd all be up shit creek."

"Ugh. Language! Please. And what is this something you speak of?" she mocked.

"Agents better than you have been broken and made to work for the other side."

"You're actually afraid of little old me?"

"Don't patronize me, Golden Girl, Crystal, whoever you are."

"Right. I've been trying to be good and fair. I got a little rough but I wasn't trying to hurt any of you. I was only defending myself. If you want to keep coming after me, I can't guarantee your safety."

"And I can't guarantee yours."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"If we can't capture you, we'll have to kill you."

Crystal sighed. "My sources warned me about that, and they want to make me even stronger than I already am to better defend myself. Is that what you want? A paranormal arms race?"

The man actually smiled, even if it was a little creepy. "You know what. I'm actually starting to like you. You do seem like a good kid so take my advice. Go home and forget all about this superhero crap. Fade back into your regular life and we'll eventually give up on you, assuming we can't find you."

"I can't."

"Can't or won't?"

"I have a responsibility to use my abilities to help people. I can't look the other way while people commit crimes or get into trouble."

"You sound like a comic book."

"I'm not going to argue with you. As long as I have these abilities, I'm going to help people. End of story."

"You leave me no choice then," he told her. "I'll try to put in a good word for you and see if we've learned enough today to try to capture you again. Better that than go straight for the kill."

"Oh? I suppose I should be grateful but I'm not. I don't appreciate threats. I only wish I could thaw your heart completely. You might pass for a human being."

The man went back to glowering.

"Sorry. That sounded bad but I was actually being somewhat serious. I know at least one naughty non-human being who makes you look like a common criminal."

"One of your sources?"

"I really can't say. And I really have to go now." Her clairvoyance spotted a man in black cautiously approaching the stairwell. She grabbed the man with her telekinesis and yanked him hard up the stairs, making him cry out in pain as he bounced hard off the walls. When she got him up to her level, she kept him and the leader in the air and pulled out her duct tape, taping the men together before gently lowering them to the landing.

"See ya next time, Ace."

She flew back down the stairs, over to the doors and out of the building, not believing there ever were any hostages. The police could mop up after her at any rate. She had enough of stupid men and their stupid games.

The disgusted superheroine went to retrieve her coat and gloves from the policeman she left them with and while she was at it, she gave him a quick status report, telling him that it was safe to go in. Then she thanked him and flew up and away. Her signature sonic boom soon followed to the thrill of the crowd.

As she flew home, she wondered about her performance. She thought that her attitude needed a little mellowing but other than that, she felt satisfied and guiltless about everything she did. She wouldn't let her power corrupt her, not like it apparently did to her country's government.

She tried not to think about it the rest of the way. She got home to two worried, proud and emotionally drained parents and ended up consoling them more than they consoled her. It had been a long day and the girl wanted nothing more than to have a nice, hot bubble bath and relax.

* * *

© 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.