[Cafe] 124 – A Small Vacation Part 3

“What did you do?!” Superman asked, furious as he looked at the carnage before him, all done by Joshua and Amhrad before him. 

“Eliminated the threat,” Amhrad’s voice chillingly remarked as his boot remained over the crushed skull of a man. 

“You…YOU,” Superman started, only to be interrupted by Joshua, “Defended ourselves against men that would have seen us dead before you returned. We did only what was necessary to end the threat to ourselves, the remaining people that had yet to escape this Mall,” Joshua stepped in explaining their actions to the Man of Steel.

Before they could say anything else, men and women in black combat armor rushed into the mall, their firearms sweeping the stores and corners of the mall until they reached the three dangerous men. 

“Stop! You are under arrest!” Shouted the lead man of the squad, their shoulder pad featuring an Eagle within a Shield.

…

Some time later, in the Shield Headquarters, Fury was pacing back and forth, furious. 

Standing before him was Agent Rumlow, who recklessly arrested three ‘Meta-humans’, a catch-all term to describe the superhumanly powerful creatures, men, and women of Earth. 

“Get him out of here! I’ll deal with him later,” he waved at the Agent, as Agent Hill rushed to get the man out before Director Fury’s temper flared even more and fired the man on the spot. 

Director Fury stepped before a screen, one that showed the three supposed meta-humans imprisoned in three separate cells. Luckily, for Fury, Rumlow didn't manage to disarm the three individuals, or try to for that matter, else Fury had no doubt the three would have eliminated the entire squad of Field Agents.

The problem was, just before the three were arrested, all the cameras in the area went out, leaving Fury knowing nothing of what happened besides the obvious.

Already, his console was ringing with notifications that the Council wanted to see him, and without a doubt, they would want him to do something truly idiotic to the three men who should not have been imprisoned in the first place. Such was their typical answer to something they perceived as a threat, either to themselves or their nations. 

So, Fury did what he thought best and muted his phone.

When Hill returned, Fury asked, "How did Rumlow even get them to surrender and into custody in the first place?"

"That's what confuses me too sir, he reported that the man in bandages, Joshua, and Superman gave up willingly and convinced the man in armor to surrender into our custody as well," Hill answered without an ounce of hesitation.

"And the people who attacked them?" Fury questioned.

"That's the problem, sir, we don't know. We found nothing revealing on their persons, except for ear comms. Although their guns were new to us, they were wearing common body armor. However, what is noteworthy is that the bodies were all asian in ethnicity." Hill answered, stepping forward to hand over a datapad with the images of several of the dead John Does.

"Chinese?" Fury questioned, thinking about the representative council member for China.

"Possible, but unknown, what should we do?" Hill asked, shifting to look at the camera feeds of the three meta-humans.

"Run an in-depth search on them. If nothing comes up, find out where they came from through any means necessary. While the cameras in the area did go out, there are plenty around the mall that could have caught their trail. In the meantime, I'm going to go speak with the prisoners, explain, and if need be, apologize," Fury grumbled the last part out as he gave Hill her orders.

While Hill left the room to fulfill her orders, Fury sighed and grumbled something too quiet to hear that sounded awfully like 'Motherfucker' before he stepped out of the room himself and began making his way down the building and to the cell block where the three were imprisoned.

Taking a steady breath, he glanced at the cell's door before opening it, revealing a small interrogation room where a man in colorful attire sat calmly, the man, none other than Superman, the Man of Steel and resident superhero of Metropolis, the city of the future and home to the SHIELD Headquarters.

"Director," The Man of Steel greeted Fury.

"Superman," Fury responded in kind, taking a seat before Superman.

"Tell me what happened," Fury spoke, directly to the point.

Fury has known Superman for years; in fact, SHIELD was the Agency that made Superman a non-target for the other Agencies, keeping them off of Superman’s back and letting him enjoy the freedom he was currently having. After all, it wasn’t very hard for Shield to learn Superman’s civilian identity and his work in the Metropolis News Network. 

Fury also had Superman to thank for his assistance with SHIELD in containing and imprisoning numerous Aliens that had found themselves on Earth and decided to try their luck against Humanity.

“I was doing business as usual, stopping those who wished to harm others, when I heard a commotion coming from the Mall, when I went to investigate I found myself seeing two rather…strange looking individuals,” Superman began to explain when Fury added, “Joshua Graham and a new unknown from the Cafe, and yes, that man in bandages Is the same one you met in your civilian identity.”

“I thought so, but this…man in large armor was…disturbing to look at," Superman spoke with a grimace.

"How so?" Fury questioned, raising an eyebrow but keeping his expression serious.

"The man is...was altered down to the genetic level; he was implanted with and filled to the brim with organs and devices I have never seen before. He is littered with countless scars, and must have faced literal unimaginable pain, if that particular part of his brain wasn't nearly destroyed as well in whatever operation that made him as he is. Whoever made him whatever he is, made him to be a super soldier, one that hardly feels pain, fear, or even hesitation, the man, if he truly is," Superman spoke with a bit of raw horror in his voice.

"And the scene we encountered you three in?" Fury continued his questions.

"I don't know. I heard an explosion on the other side of the mall and flew to investigate, only to find that it happened in an empty store in an otherwise unoccupied section of the mall. When I returned, I found the two standing before a large amount...a large amount of corpses," Superman explained.

"You are saying you were not present during the confrontation?" Fury made sure to ask.

"No," Superman vehemently denied.

"Noted...you are free to go," Fury waved the man of steel out, standing from his seat.

"What are you going to do with the other two?" Superman asked, his eyes drifting to the wall where he could see the two through the wall.

"That's none of your concern, please exit the presence, through the front door, please. We do not need to add more structural damage to your record," Fury added at the end while stepping out of the room.

Now, to speak to the two only survivors of the small massacre.