Arthur looked at the scrawny man and approached him cautiously. The man did not seem to notice as he was too focused eating his nails, which were almost non existent now.
As he got closer, he could see the crazy looking man more clearly. He was clearly nervous or anxious for something, he could tell by the crazed look on his face, it reminded him of the people addicted to drugs he saw earlier, but this individual seemed in a much worse state of mind.
Arthur didn't attack inmediately and instead touched the man shoulder, since he still had not noticed Arthur's presence.
The man instantly turned around and got scared, hurridly retreating back from Arthur.
"W-Who are y-you?"
"I'm not here to hurt you, not yet atleast. What are you doing here? Are you an addict to that drug like the others?"
"A-An addict? M-me? No way... I-I am the c-creator of this d-drug..."
He kept biting his nails which were dripping blood on the floor already, before continuing to speak.
"I have n-no need of that drug, since I can create e-everything I want with my own power"
Arthur placed his hand on his chin and realized the situation.
"So they are basically extracting your power and putting it into the drugs, is that what it is? Are you being forced?"
"N-never! I-I do this because I want to support big brother..."
"Is that 'big brother' you speak about the leader, are you blood related?"
"P-Precisely... Big brother has always taken care of m-me so I want to be useful for him n-now..."
Arthur sighed and pulled out his knife, aiming it at him.
"Sorry, but the show's over. You've hurt a lot of people, even if you thought that you were doing the correct thing, I must have you detained. Do as told and I'll make sure you don't get hurt"
"W-what?! You... you are like the rest... you want to take away my illusions! I won't l-let you!"
It seemed that Arthur was right, in some part. He was not an addict to the drug, he was an addict to his own powers.
Arthur had seen numerous cases like that before, people who become so addicted and dependent of their power that get violent at the slight mention of taking it from them.
If he gets thrown in jail, they'll either supress his powers or make him a brainless zombie in antartica, although he probably didn't know that.
The crazy guy stood up, with his eyes shot in blood. Arthur went for the attack but a fog covered his surroundings and the voice of the guy echoed through the room.
"You'll never get away..."
The voice started to fade as the fog took weird shapes, Arthur knew what to expect, so he prepared to shake off the illusions.
'What are the illusions based on? Can he get into my mind or are they based on what he knows?'
He prepared to fight illusionary monsters or that type of stuff, but instead he found himself in the body of a kid, more precisely, he found himself transformed in him as a kid. The fog transformed into an apartment, dirty and rusty, with the walls crumbled.
Arthur felt his consciousness slipping away as he tried to hold into it to no avail. His sight darkened and the last thing he knew was seeing a figure walk through the door.
***
Arthur woke up in his bed, as usual, he didn't remember what happened last night, just a faint memory of his father walking through the door.
'Did he take me to bed? Impossible, maybe I walked here myself and don't remember'
The sun was already up in the sky and there was no one in the apartment, food was nowhere to be found so he went to the street to find some.
He was used to navigate these streets in silence, since everyone knew what gang was his father affiliated to: The redhorn gang, the strongest and most hated gang of the zone. His father was particularlly hated because of his power.
Arthur's father could channel his time power into his gun and knife. His bullets didn't actually hurt people, but everytime each one landed on you, one year of your lifespan was taken from you.
The knife in the contrary could actually hurt people and drained lifespan as long as it was stabbed into you.
His father wasn't particularly strong. Infact, Arthur's power is probably stronger, but nobody wanted to fight him since they knew they would atleast lose one or two years of their life.
So, many people coveted this power, resulting in many kidnapping attempts on Arthur.
As Arthur wandered the streets cautiously, he stumbled into a familiar face watching a bug crawl in the floor. He approached her distracted form and sat down with her to watch the bug, that appeared to be a cockroach.
"Is this interesting, Mary?"
"Eh? Oh, Arthur, good morning. Two kids were stomping on the cockroach so I called them out"
"Hmm... And they just followed your orders? Didn't know you had such influence"
"I mean, well... They did oppose to the idea at first, but I managed to convince them!"
"Right, is that why your clothes are dirty? It looks like you fell to the floor"
Mary looked embarrased and just burried her face in her knees.
"Do you want me to beat them up?"
"No, that won't resolve anything. It will just cause more problems for you and put you in the spotlight, and after that last bank robbery your father's gang did..."
Arthur sighed and looked at her.
"Just be more careful next time, alright. You're the only good person in this shithole, and I don't want anything happening to you"
Mary smiled and pulled a piece of bread, splitting it in two and giving one to Arthur.
"Here, have something to eat"
"Thank you"
They talked a bit more before parting ways and Arthur went back to wandering the streets.