Shortcuts

A paranormal superhero story with a supernatural twist

When everyone has a cranky day

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 21

The nudging returned Sunday night in the Akashic records. It wasn't appreciated.

"Drop dead, Mister Guile," Sarah said.

The nudging stopped abruptly and the girl wandered on her own. She made a shallow dive into the records as an experiment, looking for an earlier time when paranormal activities enjoyed more popularity.

Seances were easy to find, but most of them were fake according to the records. It disappointed her but didn't surprise her. Ever since her Government class started, her eyes had been rudely opened to the darkness within human beings.

"I hope you're happy, Mister Guile," she said aloud, not expecting an answer but getting one anyway. She received what felt like a pat on her rear and she growled.

The night ended without any new abilities but she liked the run through recent history, and she'd return over the next several nights. A strong surge of intuition told her she came close to finding something that she'd soon find useful.

"Nothing better than feminine intuition," she said as she woke up to her radio alarm playing dance music.

After a nice, long stretch, she peeled her covers off with her telekinesis and finally noticed her room decor. The dark, dull colors and posters of fighter jets screamed boy. Except for her vanity mirror and a few bits of makeup on her desk, everything about her room reeked of boy and she cringed.

"I gotta fix my room." She sighed. "Later."

All of her free time would be needed to get ready for school so she got up, threw on her bath robe and got to it.

Juice and cold cereal seemed a little ordinary but at least it had flavors that she liked and enough nutrition to make her mom happy.

The girl smiled. She felt so happy, sitting at the dining room table, being a girl, all girl. Too bad it couldn't last. She had to go to school. As a boy!

She went back to her room and shapeshifted her face and hair first, then worked her way down, except for her breasts. She'd leave her breasts for last. Parting with them was pure torture. At least she imagined it would be. This was to be her first voyage into boyhood as far as she remembered.

'I wish Mom was here,' she thought to herself, trying not to cry.

She finished shapeshifting and dressing in Lester's clothes, then went to the mirror to verify her image, comparing herself to a photo of Lester.

"I look like I could be my own brother," she said, frowning.

As planned, she kept her girl bits. They'd carry on to slowly feminize her. That would keep her from crying all day at least. She'd always refer to herself as a she, and she expected the rest of the world to soon follow suit. She'd be a part-time trans-girl for the next several months and it wouldn't be easy for her.

"Time to go," she told the house in a deep voice. She put on a long, warm coat from the old coat hook in the entry way and added an umbrella before locking the door behind her and walking off to the bus stop.

A strong, gusting wind drove the rain into her jeans, soaking them. That annoyed her. She pulled the umbrella down closer to her head and kept it in a tight grip. Using telekinesis to deflect the rain wasn't really an option. Not any more. She couldn't afford to use any ability in public where it might be seen. The shadow organization would likely detect it and come after her.

'Still cursed?' she mentally asked herself. 'Still cursed.'

Waiting at the bus stop turned into an eternity of wind and rain. The bus always seemed to be late when it rained, but it eventually arrived, like a faithful old dog. She stepped up and went back to take her usual seat, counting the seconds until her cute friend popped on and sat next to her.

'At least that's something to look forward to.'

Brian soon stepped onto the bus, and as he walked down the aisle towards Sarah, her eyes lit up.

"Hi Bri guy!" she said with a huge smile.

"Uh. Dude?" her friend said as he sat next to her.

"No more dude, Brian. Seriously. That's no way to treat a girl."

Brian gave his friend a nervous laugh.

"I'll need your support over the coming months."

"Why?"

"I'm a girl, Brian."

"Dude. You're scaring me."

"No more dude! Please, Brian. Something's happened to me. I don't know how I did it but I changed my brain. I'm a girl and I'm going to be transitioning into a girl at school. At home I can be myself of course, but school is going to be torture. That's why I'll need your support."

The boy looked her up and down and shook his head. "Not funny…." He was about to call her a dude again but stopped when he saw the fire in her eyes.

"I have paperwork here to prove it." She pulled a form out of her small backpack and waved it in his face. "But if you're not going to believe me, then I'm not going to talk to you. I'll just sit here and appreciate your broad shoulders and your eyes, your big beautiful blue eyes."

Brian sighed.

"Oh. I do have one more thing to say."

"What," he said, sounding a little reluctant to hear it.

"Don't put any more abilities on the website. They've attracted some unwanted attention."

"Yeah. I was going to ask you about Chicago but you kind of threw me a curve."

She sighed. She wanted to throw him curves all right, her real body's curves. "Some shadow agency is after Golden Girl," she told him, interrupting her daydream. "She had a heart-to-heart talk with the leader of the fake bank robbers and he said they were trying to capture her, but if they can't capture her, they'll kill her. Can you believe that?!"

"I can believe it. I should've known. I'm sorry. I'm such an idiot."

"Well, at least you're a good looking idiot."

"Will you stop?!"

She shook her head no as she stared at him. His jawline held her fascination for the longest time. She kept staring until he snapped his fingers in front of her eyes.

"Down… girl. We're here. Time for school." The boy hurried out of the bus ahead of his amorous friend.

'You'll see,' she thought as she followed his rear end with her eyes. 'I'm all girl and I'm gonna steal your heart.'

* * *

Sarah went to the main office before class to drop off some paperwork and declare her intention to transition into a girl. After working out some of the details like rest room usage and the waiver for P.E., she hurried to her first class.

Sarah, as Lester, entered the classroom just behind Erin. They briefly hugged each other and moved to their seats. When they finally tore their eyes from each other, they turned to see a very angry looking Mister Guile.

Their teacher fumed through his lecture and Sarah swore she could see steam coming out his ears. 'Must be a non-human being thing,' she thought, and giggled.

The lecture didn't cover anything interesting or even relevant to the class. It went over the Hundred Years' War.

"Excuse me, Mister Guile," Erin said. She'd raised her hand for at least five minutes and finally interrupted when it was clear that she wouldn't be called on. "Why are you covering the Hundred Year's War? This isn't a history class."

"I'm trying to make a point, my dear Miss MacCloud."

"But the war didn't even happen in this country. How is it relevant?"

The man nearly snarled but held himself in check. "I'm trying to illustrate what happens when there's no decisive victory in a war. It just goes on and on without end. Where's the exit strategy? When will it all end?!" His voice kept getting louder and he raised his arms as he spoke, waving them wildly. He was desperate to get Sarah to learn telepathy to keep her from being captured or killed.

"Hey. It's okay. Take it easy."

Mister Guile stopped and took a few deep breaths to calm himself. Erin was right. He needed to calm down. But he had too much invested in their wager and he didn't want to lose. He hated to lose. That's what he kept telling himself anyway. It couldn't be that he actually cared for Sarah because that's not what infernal beings do. They don't care.

The man looked up at the clock. With only five minutes to go in the class, he felt it pointless to continue the lecture so he dismissed everyone early. All of the students except two eagerly exited. It was just Erin, Sarah and Mister Guile. They all stared at each other as the door slowly closed on its own and sealed shut. It was time for another private conference.

"This whole thing is crazy," Erin started.

Mister Guild scowled. "I'm not willing to cancel the wager."

"You don't have a choice."

"Don't I? Things might be crazy as you say, but you have to admit it's gotten interesting."

Sarah just kept looking back and forth between the other two as they spoke. She kept waiting, hoping for one of them to let slip something more about the wager but they were too careful. Eventually, she'd heard enough. "Don't I get a say in this?"

"No!" the man shouted.

"Sorry, Sarah," Erin told her. "This is just between Mister Guile and me."

"Then why am I here?"

"Yes, Miss MacCloud. Why is Lester here?" He sneered when he said the girl's former boy name.

Sarah's eyes flashed. "I'm no longer Lester and you know it. Please don't insult me."

"Yes, yes. Sorry, my dear. We all know you're a girl now." He laughed at his cruel joke, knowing she didn't look anything like a girl at the moment.

The girl turned away from him and started to cry.

Erin couldn't take any more. "Now look what you did! You made her cry."

"I couldn't resist. So sue me."

"How about I just cancel the wager instead?"

"You can't!"

"I can and I will."

"Give it a chance," he said. "It's just getting warmed up."

"Why should I?"

"You came to me with this wager. Remember? You must have had a good reason, one you haven't mentioned. Are you going to give up so easily?"

"Easily?!" she squeaked, her face flushed with anger.

"Okay. Since you insist on being difficult. I'm playing my trump card. I'm holding you to your word. You started the wager and I'm not willing to end it. The terms of the wager haven't been violated. Therefore, it's going to continue. Am I clear?"

Erin was speechless. He called her on the one thing that she couldn't refuse: Her honor as a higher being. She didn't see it coming and she had no answer.

"Fine," she said. She got up and walked towards the door as it slowly opened on its own. "Come on, Sarah. Time to go."

Sarah popped up out of her seat and ran after her friend. She didn't spare Mister Guile a glance but if she did, she would've seen a creepy grin on his face.

* * *

Sarah wasn't sure what to say to Erin. She tagged along behind to their classes until lunch. The confused girl needed time to think about what she'd heard. The only thing that she managed to do was hand out paperwork to her teachers, explaining her transgender status. It took the teachers by surprise but they went with it. They had to since it was official. One of the teachers announced Sarah to the class, but no one seemed upset by it. School went on. Lunch was another story.

The redhead and her soon to be girlfriend sat down together at their usual table in the lunch room. Erin took one bite and Sarah pounced.

"Okay. I get it. You and Mister Guile aren't going to tell me what your wager is all about. But can you at least tell me one thing? You know. So I can maybe keep my sanity?"

Erin almost choked on a large piece of lettuce. She had to wash it down with a large gulp of water before she could speak. "I will if I can."

"Okay. I kept going over what you and Mister Guile said this morning after class and I have to ask. Do you really have some ulterior motive for starting the wager? You must because I can't imagine you normally making wagers."

"Yes, but I don't know if I should tell you. I don't want it getting back to him."

"You don't expect me to tell him, do you?"

"No, of course not. But the walls have ears. He might hear."

"Yeah." Sarah sulked. "I guess I'll just have to be satisfied to know you have your reasons." She paused a moment in thought, using her control ability and feminine intuition without even thinking about it and something occurred to her. She gave her friend a questioning look and mouthed one word. "Reform?"

Erin's eyes went wide. She nervously looked around and looked back at Sarah, slowly nodding.

Sarah laughed. "Good luck," she said, then finally started eating her lunch.

The redhead sighed but she didn't feel like eating after that. She just picked at her food and daydreamed about flying. She'd have to ask Golden Girl for another flight soon or she was afraid she'd have a nervous breakdown.

* * *

Back in the suburbs north of Chicago, three men from a certain shadow agency once again locked themselves in their windowless, sound-proofed conference room, ready to give reports and discuss options. But first, the leader of the men needed to deal with a little problem.

The tall, older man scowled and screamed a few expletives before calming down enough to officially start the meeting. "Your task force was an embarrassment to this agency," he told the youngest man of the group. "Why shouldn't I just authorize the kill order on subject Goldbrick?"

The young man sighed. "We knew going in that we didn't know enough about the subject. It was an intelligence gathering operation with a secondary objective of trying to capture the subject if possible."

"Yes, it turned out that it wasn't possible. So what intelligence did you gather?"

"The subject's telekinesis is a lot stronger than initial estimates," he glared at the third, shortest man, the one who gave the initial estimates during their last meeting. "And using satellite videos of the subject's most recent flight, the subject's speed was estimated to be over mach ten."

"Mach ten?!" the short man blurted. "Impossible!"

"Agent!" the leader said with a growl. "Compose yourself!" He turned to the young man. "What about the subject's home? Did you get any closer to finding it?"

"No. As usual, the subject turns invisible well before reaching the city."

"Damn it! I want her found!" The leader was having a bad day, and it kept getting worse. It was a rare slip up to refer to Golden Girl with a feminine pronoun. He normally referred to her as a test subject, a specimen kept in a jar to be studied and eventually killed. He'd done it to insects as a boy all the time. Dehumanizing the enemy was a common tactic, and Golden Girl was his enemy. The idea of a super strong young woman pissed him off like nothing else. It sent the wrong message to a world ruled by men, men like him.

The young man sighed. "We don't need to find the subject. We can bring the subject to us easily enough. All we need is another high profile incident."

"Fine," the leader said. "Proceed with your intel."

The report mentioned how the teenage girl easily deflected and evaded the tranquilizer darts and handled the huge quantity of rubber bullets. The only thing she had any trouble with was the brain scrambler weapons, but she had an easy answer for them as well. The report continued with the extended range of Golden Girl's telekinesis and how it was effectively used with clairvoyance to pick off the task force, one by one. She made the men look like amateurs, and as the leader listened, a vein on his forehead pulsed with anger and stress.

When the report finished, the short man asked, "Should I proceed with the kill?" He restrained his voice but his eyes glistened with eagerness.

The leader looked at both men. "That depends. Did we learn enough to contain the subject?"

The young man spoke up. "I believe we did, sir. We'll box the subject in and use the brain scramblers from long range."

"You've got one more chance," the tired older man told him. "Don't fuck this up."

So ended the latest status meeting of Operation Gold Fever.

* * *

Sarah drove to work with an unusually subdued Erin sitting in the passenger seat. Both girls looked great, with professional, feminine outfits and beautiful makeup. The only thing missing from what would've been an otherwise perfect drive was light conversation.

"Penny for your thoughts, Erin," Sarah said as she pulled into a parking space at the mall.

"Oh, it'll cost you more than that," her friend said with a faint smile.

'It already has,' the brown-haired girl thought, but she kept her thoughts to herself.

The two of them walked to their workplace in silence, but with a lighter mood after exchanging a few words. Sarah felt it important to go into work with the right mood. She remembered being quite dull at work and she vowed to make up for it.

They soon reached the front doors of Fashion Divinity and Sarah paused a moment, blocking Erin.

"Hey!" the redhead complained. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. This is the turning point and I just wanted to savor the moment. Tonight, I'll pass you in sales to become the queen of retail."

"Are you serious?"

"Entirely. Yes, I can remember being hopeless, but I know that was my boy self, before I became super sales girl." She laughed.

Erin laughed with her and they entered the store, ready to do battle with shoppers, tempting them with wondrous merchandise and making them part with their money.

Sarah laughed at her imagined battles in the store and suddenly turned serious, wondering if Golden Girl might need a vacation.

Stella smiled as the girls approached her private office, ready for what became a little ritualized game before starting work. "Name tags?" she said.

"Check!" they replied together as they retrieved said item from their purses and pinned them to their lapels.

"Smiles?"

"Check!" they said, lighting up the office with their best smiles.

"Attitude?"

"Check!" Erin said, then looked at Sarah, who she noticed didn't respond.

"Checkmate!" Sarah said, then laughed, finishing their little game with an unexpected variation.

The girls went out on the sales floor and gave it their best. Erin had a better start but Sarah went with her quiet confidence technique and slowly overtook her friend in sales. The taller brown-haired girl occasionally watched her redheaded friend and noticed how consistent Erin was. The bubbly redhead worked the same way with all of her potential customers and didn't seem to notice when it disagreed with one, an admittedly small yet still significant occurrence. Not every customer likes concentrated exuberance. Sarah learned and adapted to each and every woman she encountered. It made the difference.

At the end of the night, sales numbers were added up and Sarah wasn't crowned queen but she did end up as princess. She came in second, only behind a veteran in the shoe department. Erin came in fourth.

"No fair," Sarah mock complained. "Shoes are too easy."

Her friend smiled. "Maybe next time," she said and giggled.

The sales princess playfully stuck her tongue out at her friend and the two of them got on with helping Stella close the store.

Stella briefly took the newly complete girl aside. "Being close to Erin, I know all about your little accident but I have to say, I like how it turned out. You make an absolutely wonderful girl."

They hugged and Sarah had to fight back a tear. "Thanks, Ms. Godwin." The girl knew about Stella's involvement the day that she became all girl. She heard all about it from her mother; how a mysterious stranger came over with Erin, checked her out and charmed her parents. It was an interesting day for everyone, but it was just one in a string of many that would continue well into the next year.

* * *

Autumn rolled on to the last Friday of November, the start of the holiday season. Sarah hadn't feminized nearly enough to satisfy her, Brian was still oblivious to her charms and the shadow agency seemed overdue to strike. Stress lingered in the air but what bothered Sarah the most had to be her second period. She thought she'd be used to them by now but then laughed when she realized it was actually only the second of her life.

It surprised her how little bullying she got at school for being perceived as transgender, with nothing except an occasional one-word insult. Rumors spread faster than mach ten at her school. Everyone knew her as a budding trans-girl, but no one bullied her much. It might have been that she still looked too much like her original boy self. She didn't dress very differently than she had before. She didn't have the curves. Yet. Whatever the reason, she was grateful for the minimal drama. It kept her stress manageable.

Her current stress levels didn't come close to what triggered her brain change. It would take a lot more to cause something like that again. In other words, she was stuck as a girl and of course she didn't care. She was a girl, all girl, and couldn't be happier. Being a superheroine with a good job, good family and a potentially good boyfriend greatly outweighed any problems in her mind.

Mister Guile didn't pester her nearly as much about learning telepathy from the Akashic records. Instead, he nudged her into areas of knowledge such as paramilitary tactics that might help her deal with the shadow agency. She appreciated that. He also managed to give her one more paranormal ability. She got something called psychometry. It allowed her to find out things about people through their former interactions with an object. A person left an energy signature of sorts with all objects that they touched. She had to touch the object herself to read it but it worked well enough to find a dangerous criminal for the police.

The Mad Bomber, aka Harvey Stemwell, lived in Portland, Oregon before he was stopped thanks to Golden Girl. She flew to Portland and used her psychometry to "read" his gloating, taunting letters to the Portland police department, tracing them back through all of the people who touched them, namely the police, the postal service and the bomber himself. She found enough information for them to easily catch the disturbed old man, who was currently held in an institution for the criminally insane.

Sarah didn't have the heart to give in to Harvey Stemwell's request to have Golden Girl visit him, even though psychologists encouraged her to go, saying it might help him recover his sanity. She feared that she'd have to truthfully tell him that he was probably the easiest criminal that she ever caught. He did a lot of damage and even killed three people with several bombs before she helped, but all she did was go to the police station and use her ability on the bomber's letters. She didn't imagine it would sit well with his tremendous ego.

One good thing about the past month was that Erin and Lester, really Sarah, quit their aikido class. Sarah didn't need it and she could teach Erin. They'd save money and time so they had more of both for more shopping. It was a no-brainer.

As Sarah sat with Erin in the food court after some casual Black Friday shopping at the mall, she mentally stuck her tongue out at Fate and hummed old musical tunes, one of her favorites being "Goodnight, My Someone" from The Music Man. She hummed while indulging in her appreciation of the hunkier sex as they wandered by, but a sudden cramp stopped her cold.

"Ugh," the pained girl said.

"Are you okay?" Erin asked.

"Do I look okay?" Sarah snapped. "Oh. Sorry. You know. That time of the month."

Erin gave her a sympathetic smile. "Yes. I can relate. Did you take your medicine?"

Sarah nodded and went back to picking at her food, waiting until the time was right to begin another round of shopping. But something had been bothering her over the past week and she needed to get it out. "I've been wondering something."

"Oh?"

"I'm sitting here, basking in the glow of girlhood after having been a boy for most of my life. How is that possible?"

Erin shrugged as she chased a kernel of corn around her plate with her fork.

"Did you know this would happen? How could you not know?" Sarah didn't mean to sound accusing, but she wasn't in the best of moods.

"I'm not omniscient, Sarah. And I don't have visions of the future."

Sarah huffed.

That irritated the redhead a little. "Look, you haven't been forced to do anything against your will. What happened wasn't exactly your fault but your decisions led up to it. Everything you've done has been your choice. Humans still have free will."

"Okay. Sorry but I had to ask. You've kept a lot of secrets from me and it bothers me."

"I'm sorry too, Sarah."

They gave each other a faint smile. Sarah went back to humming and boy watching. Erin sighed and gave up on the last few corn kernels on her plate. She hated keeping secrets.

* * *

© 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.