The Adventures of SuperTroy

Chapter 3-1

Chapter 3The next three days passed without much incident. Troy was glad to be able to sleep normally. It got his mom off his back about visiting the doctor. However, she’d seen a few pictures of Troy on social media performing the lake rescue and nagged him about that instead. Lizzie just rolled her eyes every time their mom raised the issue. Eventually she quit mentioning it, much to Troy’s relief. However, that coincided with the shrinking of his arm muscles and the return of the itchy-burning pains.

Troy tried flying again but gravity kept him firmly earthbound. Fortunately, Lizzie wasn’t around to witness his activities.

* * * *

Troy tried revisiting the lake, hung around the firehouse as much as Chief Bartlet would allow, walked the mall, but no one needed saving from the water or the flames, and no shoplifters required apprehending. Troy even bought a police scanner but few crimes were being committed in his neighborhood. And the couple of incidents he drove to had already been resolved by the time he’d arrived.

After a couple of sleepless nights when he could have willingly torn his burning arms off, in sheer desperation, Troy determined he’d revisit the CSA building and demand some answers.

First, however, Troy was in the mood for a burrito. It was one of the few things he could make himself. To save time on the mornings when he had an early class, he made batches of burritos, bagged them up, and froze them. Hopefully he’d be able to slip into the kitchen, heat up his meal, and leave the house without his mother nagging him about something.

However, upon approaching the kitchen, Troy smelled the unmistakable odor of baking. Entering the kitchen, he saw baking pans of every shape and size littering the counters. They were joined by a stand mixer, a blender, and several other pieces of kitchen equipment Troy couldn’t name. Canisters and bags of flour, sugar, cocoa, and God knew what all else were piled on the kitchen work table. His mom, her back partially turned to him, was cutting a pan of bars. Thinking she hadn’t seen him, Troy turned and started for the door. He’d grab breakfast at Jill’s, his favorite diner, before going to the CSA.

“I need some things from the store.” She turned and made eye contact with him. “I’ve run out of rye flour. And I’m low on Chex mix, too.”

“Sure, Mom.” Going shopping gave him access to his mother’s car. Driving to the CSA building would be quicker than walking. As Troy heated and then ate his burrito, his mother wrote out a shopping list that, judging by how much she was writing, contained more than rye flour and Chex mix.

* * * *

“Do you have an appointment?” the disinterested receptionist asked before Troy had even gotten all the way up to the reception desk.

“No.”

“Then, I’m sorry.” She didn’t look the remotest bit sorry. “No one can speak with a CSA member without an appointment.”

Troy could feel his temper starting to rise. He was in pain, he needed help, and this…woman was giving him the brush off. He gripped the edge of the huge oak desk and could feel his guns starting to bulge. “Look, lady, I’m not just anyone. I’m SuperTroy Ashton, a tuohygan, and I want to speak with a senior member of the CSA.” Troy surprised himself at his assertive statement.

“Oh.” The receptionist finally seemed to view him with a measure of respect. “I’ll just see who’s available.” She jumped out of her chair and quickly disappeared through a door.

Troy only had to wait a couple minutes before an older lady, dressed in a neatly-pressed business suit, came out to meet him.

She extended a perfectly manicured hand. “Troy. Pleased to meet you. I’m Virginia. We weren’t expecting you today.”

“This couldn’t wait. I need some help.”

Virginia wore a concerned expression and guided Troy to an office just off the lobby.

As he told the councilwoman what had happened both at the mall and then at the lake, Virginia’s perfectly sculpted eyebrows seemed to rise higher and higher up her forehead. “You’ve met your omega?”

Omega, yeah, that was the term the other CSA member had used. “Is an omega like a skol, only male?”

“Yes and no.”

“That’s clear,” Troy muttered. “Anyway, all I did was haul a guy out of some shallow lake water.”

“Your omega.”

Troy sighed in exasperation. “He was just a guy. I don’t know who or what he is.”

Virginia tapped a few times on the tablet on the desk before turning the device to face Troy. “This him?”

A picture of a smiling man, with dirty blond hair, maybe a couple years older than Troy, peered out of the screen. “Uh, yeah, I think so. He was kinda short, maybe five eight, thin frame. Couldn’t have weighed more than a hundred fifty pounds.”

The woman nodded. “That’s Beckett Dolan. He’s your omega.”

“He isn’t my anything. I don’t want a dude.” This guy wasn’t his in any sense of the word.

“Think about it, Troy. Listen to your tuohygan senses. Before you first met Beckett—he prefers Beck by the way—your body was going into what we call protect and save mode.”

Troy wrinkled his brow. “The burning and itching?” He couldn’t help but rub his arms. They’d gotten so tender he couldn’t stand anything against his skin, so had taken to wearing sleeveless tees all the time. Yeah, he’d checked himself out in the mirror on his closet door and knew they made him look good, especially when his guns were pumped.

Virginia nodded. “And immediately you saw Beck, sensed he was in danger, you took appropriate action.”

Troy shrugged. “At least it stopped the burning, if only for a while.” He scratched his arms. “Just wish it’d stop, period.”

“Your tuohygan senses are as yet untrained. You’ll learn how to harness them.”

“Will that stop the itching?”

“Probably, yes.”

“Then teach me how to harness them!” Troy raised his voice in frustration. “Because this burning f*****g sucks!” He blushed at his bad language and immediately apologized.

“We can’t teach you. Not on your own, not without your omega.”

Troy frowned.

“We’ve never heard of a tuohygan exhibiting some of his powers prior to having the bonding ceremony with his omega. Although, as you know, tuohygans are extremely rare. So what we do know is limited.”

“Can’t you bond me to a female omega, then teach me?”

Virginia shook her head. “Omegas are just as rare as tuohygans. And they’re always male.”

“f**k!” Troy ran a hand over his face and apologized again. “Can’t I have a female skol then? Surely that’ll work.”

Virginia shook her head again. “Beck is your omega. Your body recognizes him as such, it won’t accept anyone else. Sorry.” She laid a hand on Troy’s arm but he flinched. “With Beck you’ll be able to control your powers.”

Troy couldn’t…wouldn’t accept that. “Can’t you just give me something for this burning pain? It’s killing me.”

Virginia sighed. There was yet another head shake. “We don’t know of anything. This is pretty much uncharted territory. I’m sorry.”

Not half as sorry as Troy was. “My mom said the last tuohygan wouldn’t take up his position. Was that because he didn’t want his skol, uh, omega?”

“Yes. However, the CSA still believes his omega is compatible.”

Troy’s mouth dropped open. “You’re saying that tuohygan is gay?

“All tuohygans are gay,” she said flatly.

Troy shook his head, got to his feet, and started pacing the room, emotions running between anger, disbelief, and shock. “I’m not gay.” He glared at her.

“You may not think that you are but—”

“I’m not!”

Virginia refused to concede the point and eventually Troy got a hold of himself; he was here to get answers, get a cure for the f*****g burning in his arms.

“If this other tuohygan won’t accept his omega either, then how does he cope with this?” Troy hit his upper arms with his fists.

“We don’t know. He hasn’t told us.”

This was frustrating. “Then let me talk to him, ask him how he copes.”

The councilwoman shook her head. “I can’t tell you who he is. Only when a tuohygan accepts his omega does his life become a matter of public record.”

“Jesus,” he muttered. Then he had an idea. “It’s true that a tuohygan is born every generation, right?”

Virginia nodded.

“So, uh, what about the tuohygan who’d, like, be in his sixties? What happened to him?” Presumably, he, too, didn’t want his omega, otherwise Troy would have known about him.

Virginia’s face fell.

“What?”

“He’s dead.”

“What?” Okay, people did die in their sixties, but…

“He took his own life.”

“What?” Troy said yet again. “Why?”

“It was a long time ago, but we think it was because he couldn’t deal with the fact he was gay.”

Troy stopped himself from saying ‘what?’ again.

“Society was even less accepting of homosexuality half a century ago.”

Troy’s heart went out to the guy who felt he had no option but to end his life because of who he loved. “So, there’s just me and this guy in his early forties?”

Virginia nodded.

“And you won’t tell me who he is?”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry.”

Troy stared at her, hoping she’d relent and tell him who the other tuohygan was, but she remained tight-lipped. Then the image of Troy’s fire chief appeared in his mind’s eye. “It’s Brendan Bartlet!”

Up until that moment, Virginia had managed to school her features pretty well, but at the mention of Chief Bartlet’s name, she looked shocked. “How did you get that information?”

Troy shook his head, confused. He just, like, had seen the chief’s face. Adding to his confusion was that the other tuohygan was someone he knew. Why hadn’t Chief Bartlet told him, especially when the man had known Troy had rejected the CSA’s offer, just like the chief had?

“Troy?”

“Uh, I don’t know. Could one of my powers be mindreading? Talk about a stab in the dark.”

“I…” She got to her feet. “Please wait here a moment. I need to consult with my colleagues.” Virginia practically ran out of the room, not fully closing the door behind her.

Troy’s eyes soon drifted back to the tablet on the desk. The picture of Beck still remained on its screen. The man looked happy but with an air of vulnerability that called to something deep inside Troy. But did he like the dude in that way? Troy’s head shake wasn’t as emphatic as maybe it should be. That made him angry all over again. “No, I’m not queer! And I’m outta here.” Troy got to his feet and made for the door. He’d go see the chief and…

“Sorry. I took longer than I intended,” Virginia said, meeting Troy at the door. She was flanked by a man and a woman, presumably fellow members of the CSA. “This is Katerina and Scott.” They blocked the doorway, preventing Troy from leaving.

Katerina pointed to the chair Troy had recently vacated. “Please sit.”

Troy did. His parents had raised him to always respect authority and this woman seemed to exude it. He tried not to scowl; there was something about this woman he didn’t like or trust, but he didn’t know what or why.

“We understand you’re already able to utilize some of your tuohygan powers,” Scott said. “Despite not accepting your omega.”

“Uh, yeah. I, like, was able to fly when I saw him.” Troy pointed to the picture on the tablet, “He was in danger.”

“Interesting,” Katerina said, looking at Troy like he was a specimen under a microscope. Troy scratched his arms and shuffled uncomfortably in his chair.

The two newcomers asked Troy a series of questions. Some of Katerina’s were about Troy’s previous relationships and were rather personal and Troy refused to answer them.

Scott stepped in and interrupted his fellow council member. “What I suggest, Troy, is that you at least spend some time with Mr. Dolan. Just hang out, nothing that’d make you feel uncomfortable. Do you think you could do that?”

Troy nodded. It sounded reasonable. And who knew, just being around Beck might ease his symptoms. Judging by her barely concealed scowl, Katerina didn’t agree with Scott’s plan. The fact she didn’t like it made Troy all the more determined to try it.