My feet didn''t even get off the ground with my first jump attempt, not with four full grown adults, two female police officers, and two middle-aged men holding onto me with every last bit of strength available to them.


    I blinked and the puppet frog that had been standing several inches from my face disappeared.


    "Hold him! Hold him!" one of the female officers shouted to the others.


    My hands were cuffed behind my back. The metal was digging painfully at my wrists. My teeth were bared and my face was hot and tense from the effort it took for me to remain standing despite their attempts to get me back on the ground.


    I''m going to jump whether you lot like it or not! I thought to myself.


    Jump! I thought.


    In order to achieve this goal I threw aside a sliver of the caution I continued to hold onto, since I was very afraid of hurting any of the idiots holding onto me, and let my legs bulk out far more than they ever had before.


    The blue denim jeans I wore bulged as the muscles in my legs filled them out. The stitching along the thigh ripped bit by bit.


    A sound similar to a gurgling noise came from my thighs as the muscles tensed and grew and repeated this pattern over and over, building the overall size.


    To a lesser extent I felt the muscles in my lower back and stomach tense and then grow in sudden gurgles and swells.


    "You! Idiots!" I yelled between gasping breaths, "I just! Want! To buy – food!"


    I felt the veins in my feet wriggle and change along with the additional muscle and strengthening of the bones and sinews all across the lower half of my body.


    One of the men put his arm around my neck and squeezed with all of his might.


    The muscles in my neck built, seemingly spurred on by the muscle growth elsewhere. Even my spine seemed to give a little to the pressure exerted onto it before hardening and becoming as resilient as steel; or at least that''s how it felt.


    "This is your last chance!" I spat out, "Get off or I''ll make you get off!"


    The grips from all four of the adults loosened just a little as they weighed up their options. The police officers trying to hold me down I could understand, but the two guys? Were they under the impression they were doing a good thing by trying to pin me down? Or were they thinking about what they might get as a reward for their assistance in my capture?


    Their grips, though tiring, remained staunchly firm.


    Fine, I thought, Don''t say I didn''t warn you.


    I jumped again.


    The difference the second time around was staggering. There was real force behind the jump this time, lifting not only me off my feet, but the four full grown adults as well. Although my feet were only about a handwidth off the ground, all five of us were thrust into the middle aisle, an officer to my left and a guy to my right both collided with the aisles, sending packets of sweets, chewing gums, and chocolate bars all over the floor.


    The remaining two adults cushioned my fall, not that it would have hurt me all that much. I felt a crunch followed by the remaining female officer holding onto me screaming out in pain.


    I got quickly to my feet. I did so a little clumsily on account of my hands still being cuffed behind my back. The four adults that were now on the ground were groaning and squirming in pain.


    The officer that had screamed was holding her wrist.


    Without any forethought I squatted low and examined the officer''s wrist.


    "Colles fracture," I said, the information coming out of my mouth sounding almost robotic. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    The female officer, who was no older than forty, shot me a perplexed look.


    "You can tell it''s a Colles fracture because of the ''dinner fork'' shape," I said, the words coming out like vomit, "It''s a dorsal displacement of the distal fragment."


    I stood up and looked over at the others.


    One of the men was nursing the small of his back and wincing.


    Just bruising, my inner voice told me.


    I breathed a small sigh of relief. The others, though dazed from the impact of the fall and hurting a little, weren''t going to need medical attention.


    A sudden clacking noise alerted me to a nearby door opening. I looked to my right and saw Xandra standing at a now open doorway with our two carry bags hanging on each arm, and a medium-sized brown box filled with food and other items held in her arms.


    She froze, looking at me and the adults on the ground.


    "I''ve got the stuff," said Xandra, "We should go."


    I took a few moments to catch my breath and to think about what I wanted to do next. In the scramble with the four trying to pin me down the other scared people had fled the petrol station, with the exception of the Indian woman who was standing trembling behind the plastic screen.


    My legs were still enlarged, almost comically so given how my upper body, though muscled, wasn''t bulked to the same degree. I didn''t reduce the size of my leg muscles despite the thought occurring to me.


    Xandra hurried over to me and set the box filled with food and other items at her feet.


    "Hold on," she said, "I can get those off."


    "I might be able to break them," I said.


    I felt Xandra tugging at the handcuffs. She sighed and looked past me to the officers on the ground.


    "Who''s got the key?" she said.


    "As if!" said the officer nursing her fractured wrist.


    "Forget it," I said to Xandra.


    I concentrated on increasing even more muscle into my arms and across the rest of my body, giving the power within me permission to do so, activating that internal light in my mind''s eye.


    Thunk! Stretch! Thunk! Stretch! Gurgle!


    The sleeves to the gray shirt I was wearing beneath the puffy black coat were starting to rip their stitches too.


    Riiiip!


    Particularly around the wrists and the shoulders the fabric gave way to the newly bulked muscle there. Never had I felt my arms become so heavy and huge.


    And this is what I can muster at my normal height, I thought with a slight sense of wonder that came as a silver lining to all the on-going frustrations in the petrol station.


    I gritted my teeth and, in a single effort, broke the cuffs apart. They were still stuck to my wrists, and digging in a bit uncomfortably, but that was a problem that could wait for later.


    The look of awe from the two officers seeing I had broken the handcuffs seemed like something I should have felt a touch of pride in. Instead I just looked down on them with a heavy sense of derision.


    I turned my attention to the cashier desk.


    "Hey," I said to the Indian woman, trying to sound as normal as I could muster, "Can you ring these up for me, please?"


    "Bur– I mean, Fox-Frog! What''re you doing?" said Xandra.


    "What I came here to do," I said, trying and mostly failing to keep a calm tone.


    I reached into my pocket and took out the one hundred pound note. I wanted to slap it onto the countertop but that would have undermined my point. Instead I placed it calmly on the counter and even gently stroked it for good measure, like patting a duvet after making one''s bed.


    The Indian woman just stared at me like I was about to break through the plastic screen and eat her.


    "If you don''t want to," I said, "That''s fine, but I would very much appreciate being able to pay for this food instead of stealing it. Would you please do me a favour?"


    The Indian woman''s eyes darted this way and that as she tried to make up her mind for what to do. She met the gaze of the female officer nursing her wrist, and then shook her head, declining to put the food through for me.


    "Fine," I said.


    I took the note back, pocketed it, and walked out of the petrol station the way I had come in.


    Xandra picked up her box of stolen items and chased after me, reaching my side just as we both exited the petrol station.


    Xandra and I had the sense not to wait around for more trouble. I asked her which way we should go and, after thinking it over, Xandra led the way north-west of the petrol station.


    We crossed the road. As we did Xandra handed over my carry bag.


    I saw she was stuck carrying her own carry bag as well as the box filled with food and other items she had stolen from the back of the petrol station.


    "I''ll take your bag too," I said, and she handed hers over, leaving her with just her own rucksack filled to the brim with stuff on her back, and the box in her arms.


    A chest-high rise in the ground separated the concrete road from the grassy stretch above and beyond. Xandra managed a nimble leap up.


    For my part I used my newly bulked legs to leap and, despite holding the two carry bags and having the rucksack on my back, I sprang up and cleared the distance with surprising ease.


    As frustrated as I felt with everything that had just happened in the petrol station, I couldn''t help but feel a sense of wonder at what I could now do with my legs.


    I leapt again and again, hippity hopping between long bouts of running for a good while longer on the way out from Putsley Bay.