Fish Fingers

Detonate

Anchovy's Pizzeria isn't a bad place from an outside view. It's got hard workers and good food. If you know about the fact that everyone in the staff is a gangster, it gives the place an eerie vibe. There's no signs of foul play at all but you know for a fact that there's something wrong going on. It's like a detonator without a bomb. You expect to see a bomb if you see a detonator but no matter how hard you look, you won't find anything. Regardless, you know there's a bomb. I knew there was something up with this place.

I ordered a pepperoni pizza and sat down at a table. I could see Puffer in uniform in the kitchen through the window. We exchanged glances. After a while, they came out of the kitchen.

"I'm going on break." They said to their colleagues. They came over, placed my pizza on my table and sat across from me.

"Hello." I said, doing finger guns.

"What are you doing here? I told Anchovy that I killed you. If they find out that I lied and didn't finish the job, they'll kill me!"

"Not with your ability, they won't."

"Why would you come here and order a pizza?"

"I like to learn about my enemies before I try to fight them. That's why Truth is such a good ability. You let Tetra fight me so you could learn more about how I fight. You get it."

"Either kill Anchovy or get out of here as soon as possible."

"You can trust me. If they figure out that you lied, I'll protect you."

"Can I have a slice?"

"Go for it."

We ate the pizza. It was better than the usual frozen pizza I would usually have from the supermarket. A fat person in a chef uniform with a tall hat. They had wrinkles on their forehead, most likely from anger issues.

"Puffer!" They yelled. "Your break ended 2 minutes ago! I don't pay you to have dates in the middle of work!"

"They're not a date." Puffer clarified. "Just a friend."

"You don't have friends."

I looked up at them as they gazed down at Puffer.

"Could you lower your voice please?" I requested.

"Who are you?" The chef said at the same volume as they used with Puffer.

"You first." I snapped my left fingers.

"I'm Anchovy. What did you just do? How dare you!"

"Calm down, tubby."

"Get out of my restaurant! Nobody insults me and gets away with-"

I snapped my right fingers at Anchovy. They were being loud and I wanted to show them how loud they were being. The blast hit their face and knocked them to the floor. I stood up with the final pizza slice in my left hand.

"I said calm down!" I reminded. Anchovy stood up again with blood leaking from their eye.

"I'll kill you for that. Puffer, get them!" Anchovy ordered.

Puffer stood up and got close to me before snapping their fingers. Their barrier appeared around both of us. I could no longer hear the shouting and outside noise.

"Stick your right hand out." Puffer suggested. I held my right hand forwards, aiming at Anchovy. Puffer took a step back and snapped again, repositioning the barrier to end at my wrist. I could now aim Compression outside the barrier while still being protected. Anchovy looked like they were still shouting so I activated Compression to absorb their noise and blast them again. They barely dodged the blast.

Anchovy used a table as a shield. Several customers picked up their food and left. From behind the table, Anchovy activated their ability. I wasn't able to hear it from inside the barrier but I found out about it soon after. They stood up and jumped at the barrier, being careful to avoid getting hit by my attacks. Anchovy got to the barrier and tried to slowly phase through. Puffer began loading their revolver. Before I could turn my hand towards Anchovy, I saw another Anchovy jump out from behind the table. Then, another came out. All had the same wounds on their eyes from my previous attack. I quickly figured that it was a cloning ability of some sort, copying Anchovy's state when they snapped their fingers. How can you beat someone who has seemingly infinite versions of them attacking you?

Now there were 2 of Anchovy trying to phase into the barrier.

"Do we have a plan?" I asked.

"Do we?" Puffer responded.

"Hold these ones off. I'll handle the other ones."

"Ok." I went to the side of the barrier furthest from the clones. Puffer snapped while on the other side, bringing the clones further into the barrier and letting me almost fully out. Puffer grabbed the clones' arms and pulled hard. The barrier only lets slow things through so the pull prevented them from making any progress into the barrier. Once I was out completely at the other side, Puffer took a small step towards me and snapped to reposition their barrier to go through the clones' bodies perfectly in the middle. Escape would take a long time for them.

I used the opportunity to go around to the other copies of Anchovy. There were 2 more of them. Because they're fat, I hesitated to brawl. Fat people can be deceptively strong, not to mention how there were 2 of them. I aimed my right hand at them. One picked up a pizza box and charged at me, planning to use it as a weapon and shield. Dumb move. They let out a battle cry as they swung the box. I used Compression on their yell to shoot them in the face through the box. The hit broke their nose and rendered them useless. They snapped their fingers and stopped existing. As in, completely gone from this world.

I looked at the other Anchovy. They didn't look like they were planning an attack. They wanted to get out. They snapped their fingers twice and a pair of clones appeared by their side and charged at me. When Anchovy snapped their fingers, clones appeared. When a clone snapped their fingers, they disappeared. If I dealt with the real Anchovy, the fight would be over.

I threw a chair at the clones and one fell over. The sound of the impact of the fat chef and the floor emitted enough sound for Compression. I shot at the real Anchovy and managed to hit their hand. I noticed blood appear on the hands of all the clones, too. Anchovy dashed for the exit but, as they touched the door, I heard a loud bang. I used the sound to blast a clone with Compression, killing them instantly with an explosive hit to the head.

I looked at Anchovy and saw a big hole in their skull as they dropped to the floor. I turned to Puffer. They had managed to put 2 clones into the barrier and shot the original in the head with their revolver. The clones all realised what had happened and snapped themselves out of existence. The room fell silent for a moment.

"We make a good team." I said.

"All of this…" Puffer huffed, still holding out their revolver in Anchovy's direction. "All of this for an oven! What has life come to?"

"Welcome to my crazy world. Stay a while."

"This was fun. You're good at this fighting stuff."

"Cheers. Hey, how come the gangsters in the kitchen didn't come to help Anchovy out?"

"They don't want to deal with fighting me and they know they can't beat you. You managed to beat Jelly and now Anchovy! These are some of the biggest names in Jaws and you kill them every day!"

"I guess I am quite intimidating. What now?"

"Are you available this weekend?"