[Cafe] 123 – A Small Vacation Part 2

[A/N: Hitting walls constantly with these Cafe chapters, once this is posted, I'm going to take a week to try and make a plan for the next couple of chapters to hopefully make them easier to write without so much struggle, for reference, I've spent the better part of a day writing just this chapter and hitting walls constantly]

The three stood in awkward silence before Joshua focused on the Alien and spoke, his voice calm and even, maybe even a bit surprised: “I heard you worship the Lord. Is this true?” 

Superman chuckled and gave a small smile and nod of affirmation, “I believe in God, yes, I was born and raised here in the US of A, and my parents are devout Christians.”

“Interesting, and you look so…human, are all aliens so similar in appearance to Humanity?” Joshua asked, curious.

“To my knowledge all Kryptonian, such as myself, are eerily similar in appearance to Humanity here on Earth, but as far as I know, most other aliens in the wider galaxy do not look like you or I, and come in many different shapes in sizes, with some species even being capable of shapeshifting to look however they wish,” Superman informed the Burned Man before him, casually looking to the giant of a man at his side.

Hearing an anomaly within the man, Superman’s eyes shifted to look in other spectrums, seeing that the supposed human at the burned man’s side was far from human, featuring two hearts, four lungs, multiple new and strange-looking organs, tougher skin, and so much more. 

The longer Superman looked upon the giant, the more artificial and unnatural his appearance became, but his scanning stopped when the Burned Man spoke again.

“I must ask that you refrain from staring. I’m afraid that you're making my companion here…anxious,” Joshua warned, seeing Ahmrad clenching his fist and tensing up.

"What...are you?" Superman asked, shocked at what he saw.

"An Astartes," Ahmrad spoke with his deep voice.

"Astartes? I have not heard of that species before..." Superman stated in confusion, looking at Amhrad in his armor up and down.

"He is Human, just...changed," Joshua explained.

"Human?" Superman asked in disbelief, before asking, "Who...who did this to him?"

Amhrad seemed to become even more tense if his posture was anything to go by, but before any of the three could say anything, distant explosions echoed from the other side of the mall.

...

Meanwhile, multiple groups of agents could be seen watching the trio from within the crowd when one of these agents raised their hand to their ear and spoke in Chinese, "Targets have begun speaking with Superman, orders?"

"Use Flying Dragon to distract the 'Superman', try to capture targets once the Superman is distracted and extract, if capture is not possible, isolate and eliminate the Targets," A male voice spoke over the radio.

"Yes, sir," the man acknowledged before looking to his team members.

"Flying Dragon, get Superman's attention. Every other team, get ready for combat. I'll activate the Fire Alarm and get these civilians out of our way," the lead agent informed the others, sneaking to the back of the crowd, where he discreetly pulled the fire alarm.

With the fire alarm pulled, the mall quickly began filling with the sound of alarms as crowds began to part past the Targets and out of the Mall.

"Initiate capture," the lead agent spoke over the radio.

...

Rushing out from the crowd, multiple men in seemingly normal clothes pulled out strange weapons and took aim, yet before they could fire, Amhrad leaped into action, drawing their axe and bisecting one of the men with a single swing. 

Joshua, too, leaped to the side as strange bullets flew by. With practiced motion, he pulled out the 'A Light in Shining Darkness,' a personalized .45 Colt that was far more powerful than it should have been.

With two shots, Joshua took down two of the armed men before getting struck by one of the others and grunting in pain as a massive amount of electricity coursed through his veins, but Joshua was far tougher than the average Wastelander and did not go down.

A single shot took down the assailant before Joshua was shot again, sending him down to his knees as his muscles spasmed and constricted.

Yet, the man who shot him did not make it even a step further before Amhrad grabbed the man by the neck and squeezed. A bone-chilling crack echoed in the surroundings as the men who remained focused on Amhrad, the clearly more dangerous opponent of the two.

Each shot that dinged on Amhrad's armor did little to hurt or even slow Amhrad down, as his armor negated everything that was thrown at it, even when these unknown men switched to far more lethal weaponry.

Bullets ricocheted or just plain out flattened against the Powerd-Armor Amhrad wore upon his body, and yet Amhrad seemed to only gain speed as he blitzed across the mall far faster than a man his weight and size had any right to be.

Before long, the remaining ambushers lay dead or knocking on death's door around them.

"Joshua, are you alright?" Amhrad asked, stomping over to him, leading a trail of blood from where he had crushed a man's chest in with a single stomp.

"I am, I was not expecting such strong...electricity from such tiny guns," Joshua grumbled out as he stood on his feet and walked over to one of his personal kills to grab the pistol.

It was sleek, yet bore no identifiable marks or design, and was clearly different in design compared to the guns Joshua was used to.

Before the two could say another word, a voice boomed from behind the two.

"What did you do?!" Superman shouted, his form floating in the air behind them and his visage showing a mixture of grief and anger towards Joshua and Amhrad.