Early on a Saturday morning, most folks do not want to find themselves sitting in a doctor's office on crinkling paper waiting, but Arthur found himself doing just that of his own volition.  The doctor stepped into the room and looked over the chart that the nurse had prepared.  Looking somewhat middle age-ish and frumpy with thick glasses that perched somehow right at the tip of the man's nose, Dr. Fine looked up from the chart over the top of the glass slabs and acting as though he hadn't seen a thing, he simply asked, "So, what seems to be the problem, Arthur?"

Arthur shifted uncomfortably in his chair, trying to decide how to begin, "I think I've been having.... fits or hallucinations or something."  he said, finally.

The doctor looked at him half leaning half sitting on the counter with the sink.  He looked at Arthur with a concerned visage, "I see.  What kind of things are you seeing?  How often?  Any changes in diet or any drugs involved?"  The doctor fished in his pocket for the small device that he'd use to inspect, Arthur's eyes and ears and mouth.

Arthur looked vaguely bewildered at the stream of questions, "Um... It only started last night.  No drugs... but I've kind of been living on packet noodles since my girlfriend kicked me out...."

He wiped his forehead, nervously.  "Last night... it started with a..a smell, like baking leather; then, I mean I must have blacked out.  I'd dropped my keys, I went to pick them up, and then suddenly they were in my hands.   Anyway, I thought I was just tired but later, at my desk, there was that same smell and it was like my arms changed or something.  Anyway, I went to bed after that, I was pretty freaked out but then, this morning in the shower, I... I thought I was levitating!  I mean, hovering off the ground!  Its crazy, I know, but it was almost real."  Arthur looked at Doctor Fine, searchingly.  "I swear, this has never happened before yesterday, but it was all so vivid!"

"I see.  I see.  Stress, maybe?"  The doctor asked clicking a pen and then writing something onto the pad.  "You're blood pressure comes back normal.  Maybe some cross collaboration with the dream state?  A vivid dream can sometimes seem so real that it conflicts with our memories.  Have you been getting enough sleep?  Or maybe something other than packet noodles would be helpful?"  The doctor looked apologetic, but it was obvious that he didn't have an immediate solution to the problem.

Arthur hung his head, defeatedly.   "It all seemed so real... but I suppose I have been loosing a little sleep recently.  Got a lot on my mind, bills and work and...suchlike..." he trailed off, then looked up at the doctor, an slightly panicked expression on his face.  "What if it happens again?  I mean when I'm driving or something?!"

"You'll just have to remember that it's an hallucination.  That it's not real and you'll have to pull over to the side of the road until it passes and try to relax.  Eat better.  Get some exercise and all the other stuff I'm supposed to tell you to do, and that you are supposed to do.  Catch up on sleep.  It's the weekend after all, surely you can take a day or tow off and go to the cinema or something."  The doctor signed the paper and indicated that Arthur should take it easy and let him go with a firm handshake.

The woman at the front desk gave Arthur a lollipop and a smile, "Take care, Sweetie."

Arthur smiled faintly, sucking on the sweet as if he enjoyed it, it was apple flavour.  

He hated apple.

Leaving the Doctor's, he trudged back to his car with an air of glum despondency.  He decided to drive to the local Tesco's supermarket, figuring that buying in some decent food wouldn't hurt.  His stomach started rumbling in time with the car's engine, as he realized he hadn't had anything other than a packet of noodles in fourteen hours.  Sticking the disgusting lolly in the ash tray, Arthur changed into gear and pulled out of the car-park.  The drive to Tesco's was uneventful, easing his nerves somewhat.

In no time he was at the Tesco's, a company that seems to have nearly taken over the world.  The closest one had been rebuilt in 2012 from an Express into a Superstore.  The place was a decent size and had an assortment of items along with the basic grocery.  Arthur is able to take the aisles with ease as there seem to be few people in the store at that particular time.  One register was open with a real living clerk, and several lanes of automated checkout were alive and ready for action.

Arthur moved across to one of the automated checkout's.  He saw no reason to interrupt the teller and the fascinating romance novel she appeared to be engrossed in.  Besides, too many people seemed afraid to use the machines.  He didn't understand it, sure the technology was a bit iffy to start with, but in the past five years it had improved greatly.  If you had a points card, it would even say hello to you in person and inform you of special offers you might enjoy.  Actually, he found that aspect slightly creepy and so rarely used his Tesco card unless he really needed the petrol points.  He wheeled his trolly up to the checkout.  As he did so, the machine's sensors were triggered and an attractive animated woman appeared on the screen.  In an irritatingly cheerful essex accent, it began informing him precisely what he already knew he had bought, as he scanned pizza's, crusty bread, meat, cheese, fruit.... even vegetables.  He felt quite proud of himself.  Apart from the Pizza's, he had largely steered clear of 'Geek Cuisine.'   The last things he unloaded were a variety of vitamin and mineral tablets that he had chosen, in a scattershot manner, from the health supplements section.

The final item slid across the scanner and the machine accepted payment and it was printing a receipt.  Arthur didn't notice, nor did anyone else seem to notice immediately when four masked people walked into the Tesco.  Everyone noticed when four guns were fired into the air and they started screaming.  "Everybody down on the ground, this is going to be a robbery!"

Most people carefully knelt and got on the ground, the light above Arthur flickered as it had been shot.  A few sparks fell from the ceiling.  An old lady in a walker seemed frozen in place.  More gun shots were heard towards the back of the store.

Arthur stood in shock for a second before complying and getting down on his hands and knees behind the bulk of the check-out.  

"You better get down, Mrs...."  he hissed at the bewildered old lady, glancing round the side of the machine to see if any of the men were near-by.   She didn't appear to be moving.  He rubbed his eyes furiously, sighed, and crawled over to where the old woman stood, to make sure she was alright.

Crawling around the back end of the counters he arrived in the lane with the old lady at the same time as one of the men arriving in that lane, "Hello, Mate.  We don't want no heroes now do we?"  he readied the gun and aimed it at Arthur's head.  "You be a nice lad and help a fellow out.  I'd prefer to hold onto me gun and you get to toss everything we want into shopping carts and bags, since you are so keen on running about.  Make sense?"  The old lady looks at you with wide eyes, clearly frightened stiff.

Arthur stared up the barrel of the gun, guiltily, then raised his hands while he got to his feet, slowly.

"Fine, but let me help this lady sit down somewhere first.  If she has a heart-attack, you could be charged with Manslaughter..."  he tried in his most reasonable tone of voice.  His outstretched palms felt sweat-slick and he morbidly wondered what being shot would be like.  It made him feel sick in the pit of his stomach, a feeling churned up still further by his growing indignation at being treated like this by anyone, armed or otherwise.

The old woman fainted beside Arthur and the masked man took a step back, "Cah, did something break here, the bloody heat is unbearable.  Where the hell did that come from.  Maybe I should leave a few bucks to fix the damn place.  Step forward out of there, man, and let the old lady fry."  Arthur however did not notice the heat despite the fact that the masked man's mask looked suddenly as if he was sweating beneath that hood, not to mention the clothes on his body.  Arthur could feel along with his indignation a tickling sensation on his skin that was in some ways similar to the way the shower felt on his naked back and head.  His hands and arms felt as though they were pulsing beneath the skin. 

"You cant just leave her there!  At least help me move her somewhere more comfortable..."  He tried again, taking a step forward, out from the scant protection offered by the teller-machine, slowly extending one hand in supplicatory manner.

Arthur's arm turned to living molten lava with rivulets of heat rolling off the limb and the smell of roasted leather accompanying the event.  The gun that the man was aiming at Arthur ripped itself from the man's hand and flew into Arthur's awaiting molten limb where it began to melt and the gunpowder in the bullets formed several miniature explosions that seems to absorb into his flesh and hand.  The explosions and the warped gun fell to the floor and Arthur's hand immediately turned back to normal without harm.  The other members of the robbery team turned to see Arthur standing there with his hand extended.  The man who seemed to be in charge had fallen to the ground in a pool of sweat panting.

Arthur, gaped, staring alternately at his hand, his fallen assailant and the twisted remains of the fire-arm, now fused with the linoleum tiles of the Supermarket floor.  

"Oh Shit..."  he exclaimed, glancing around to see if anyone had seen, luckily all the Supermarket customers seemed to still be lying face down on the ground.  Hearing voices, he dropped back down, dragging the stunned, elderly woman in behind the safety of the Check-out counter.  

With guns raised, the other men at the front of the store began a slow walk towards Arthur, "Paul, you alright?" one of them says.

"Shit, oh-shit, oh-shit, oh-shit..."  Arthur hissed to himself as he heard the other robbers approach.  He glanced back at the old lady, whipped off his coat and propped it underneath her head.  Peering from behind the counter, he could see that they were closing in on him.   Glancing about, frantically, he saw a trolly that had been abandoned by its frightened owner.  He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, then made his move.  Rushing out from behind the counter, he grabbed the trolly by the handle and began pushing it at full pace down the aisle; as he did so, he let out a scream as he charged the nearest robbers, half ducking behind the trolly for cover.  The blood curdling noise might have sounded like a war cry, but in-fact it was merely a terrified, involuntary scream, born from Arthur's own awareness of the risk he was undertaking.

The air cooled quickly forming a thin sheen of condensation as Arthur propped the woman's head up.  The trolly's handlebar was slick but Arthur grasped firmly and with his warcry the robber's opened fire just as he launched the cart in their direction.  Arthur could see what happened but perhaps disbelieved.  The bullets coming in were visible to him only as they slowed and dropped to the floor in front of him.  His forearms flared a brilliant pulse of red that not only flung the cart towards the robbers but with waves of what might only be described as gravity.

The cart slammed into one of the men with a force that looked like a car hitting a man in the middle of the road.  The man doubled over the end of the trolley.  The others were flung backwards flailing and loosing weapons as they soared across the open floor.

Coming up three aisles were three men in total, "What is going on up here, mate?" one says looking around and seeing Arthur as the only man standing within their sight.

Arthur swallowed, sweating profusely, still glancing down at his arms with eyes bulging.  Seeing that none of his assailants were to be seen, he blurted out the first excuse that came into his head,  "Someone fought back and got out the front!  You better hurry, the police will be here any minute!"  He stammered.

It seems as though someone actually did manage to signal the police because sirens could be heard in the distance.  The three looked over the scene in the front and apparently panicked.  They all turned and ran towards the back of the store.  It seemed a quick blur after that.  Customers started to stand up, the old lady came to, the weirdness about Arthur's arms was a strange memory in his mind.  The police came in and disarmed the robbers in the front, hauling them to their feet and getting them settled into custody.  In the back of the store, the police captured the other three and then the questioning began.

The number of police suddenly hanging around was more than sufficient to handle the defeated robbers and they were taking statements from everyone in the Tesco.  An small number of people were pointing towards Arthur, and while the officer assigned to him was in one instance asking boring questions, a few were suddenly around him asking questions of a different nature.

"I've got some people over here saying you pushed a trolley so fast it nearly cut one of the men in half?"

"Someone says your arms glowed red?"

"The old lady said she passed out because of the heat coming off of you?"

"That clerk just showed me some video of you sucking some guys gun off his hand and melting it in front of him, what in the world is going on here?"

Arhtur looked bewildered at the barrage of questions, his brain gradually digesting the simple fact that he did not appear to be hallucinating after all.  The confirmation of this was of far less comfort than he might have hoped...

He turned to the Officer for support.  

"All I know is, these guys bust in and everyone got on the floor... I think they used some gas or something... and that guy, his gun malfunctioned, I dunno what he put in it, but it seemed to get really hot... Phosphorous or something?  he panicked and threw it at me, it was so hot I dropped it."  Arthur bore and expression of utter exasperation, overlayed by an incredulous smile as he addressed the police man taking his statement.

"I mean, this is ridiculous, you surely can't believe that sort of nonsense?"  He staggered, putting one hand on a pile of boxes, as though for support.  "I think what ever they used is still effecting me.. I need some air..."

"Yeah, air, sure.  Step outside with me.  I'm officer Walker.  I know what I saw on the video though.  You might not believe it but holy cow.  There is no way you can hide this.  Where have all the other gone?"  The officer seems to be talking to  both Arthur and himself.  He leads Arthur out the front of the store where at least one news crew has slid into the parking lot to get something for the news.  On his way out the front store a young man working the register inside yells, "You rock, man!"

Next to the police car the officer looks Arthur in the eyes, "Look, mate, no gas, no phosphorous, you've got to come clean.  People this year have turned up with strange powers, the bloody age of the superheroes it's been called but they end up missing.  Not a one coming forward and no missing persons reports to this effect.  If you've got something, you'd better damn well protect yourself.  Go public man, or talk the department for protection of some kind."  Officer Walker looked over briefly at the news crew and looked at his fellow officers each involved in separate duties.

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