​ FUCK!

​     The word flashed in Niki's mind just like that, in caps with an exclamation point. It glowed like neon.

     The two kids hacked at her with their forks, and what was she supposed to do about that? She couldn't just slug a child...although, on the other hand, these were two vicious little brats, they meant business with those forks, so what the hell?

     Niki smashed the little girl's nose for her. Yep, here came the blood, and plenty of it. That's one of the great things about smacking a nose, always plenty of blood. Niki got a handful of the boy's hair, then slammed his skull into the table. She kicked the boy in the throat, crushing his larynx, as she spun away from the table. The girl ran from the café into the street, her nose still spurting blood. 

     Dad came at Trevor. Trevor thumbed him in the eye, then snapped Dad's neck. The man melted into silver goo, then dissolved into mist. Trevor kicked the chair away from himself to face mom and a sailor.

     Mom took a fist to the jaw. The sailor went into a judo pose. His problem was he didn't know the first thing about judo. He was doing movie judo. Two well placed, very quick kicks from Trevor, and the sailor goo-dissolved.

     The chef with the meat cleaver came at him. Niki slugged the chef's neck from behind using the side of her right fist. The chef turned, furious. Trevor pulled the cleaver out of his hand, then buried it in his forehead.

​     Goo. Mist.

     Trevor and Niki now stood back to back in the middle of the café surrounded by cooks and people who, moments before, had seemed like ordinary citizens enjoying their morning meal.

     Trevor went to hand Niki the cleaver. "Here. You probably need this more than I do."

​     "Yeah, and what are you going to use?"

     "Don't worry about me."

     "Drop it then. It'd just confuse me right now."

     "Uh..."

     "Keep it simple."

​     "Sure." Trevor threw it at the ceiling so that it got stuck up there. The last thing he needed was for one of the replacers to get possession of it to use against either him or Niki.

     Then,

​     Everyone heard a cough.

     Everyone turned.

     A man sat alone in the corner of the café. He looked hungry and pale. He hadn't combed his hair in a while.

     In other words, he was obviously a homeless man who'd wandered into the café just to have a warm place to go.

​     And now here were all these people fighting and dissolving and...

​     He's the one who made the nervous cough.

     Causing everyone in the room to turn and stare at him.

​     "Uh..." the homeless man stammered.

​     "Would you like to leave?" Trevor asked him.

     "Yes please."

     "Hurry."

​     But there was no hurry left in the guy. It took him thirty seconds to get all the way out of his chair and out the door, and as he did he muttered, "I ain't never anything like...maybe I should call...I don't suppose any of you have a dollar I could...oh no...I don't..."​​

     And out the door he went.

​     After which, the fighting immediately resumed.

​                                                   CONTINUE