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“A new pizza gang in town? The WPA warns the local neighborhood to stay alert as the unruly gang members have started to cause chaos in multiple of our favorite pizzerias! PNN will continue to update its viewers as the WPA investigates the motive behind these seemingly random destructions. That’s all for today. Good pizza, great pizza.”
You turned your television’s volume down, sighing as the resounding clatter of the remote being returned to the junk drawer reverberated throughout your empty pizza parlor. PNN was too late.
Early as usual, you arrived at your pizzeria ready to tend to your garden. You had zucchini, jalapenos, and artichokes growing presently, and you wanted to take extra good care of them. You were trying to save as much pizza funds as you possibly could, mainly because you were able to afford new equipment and toppings more easily this way. Dr. Keh was as competitive as usual, and your only hope of winning against him was to at least stay slightly on par with the equipment he had– sans the custom-made tools. Lately, he had been slightly more handsy with you, putting a hand on your shoulder or petting your head tauntingly, so the competition really was on.
Though you could not help but wonder why he was so attentive to you.
The garden visibly was as pretty as ever, bugs buzzing around, and the decorations well-tended to (you worked awfully hard to keep it this way). You grabbed your scoop and approached the now-ready fruits and vegetables, eager to scoop them out and clean them. You dug straight in; however, the scoop did not go in as easily as it normally did. Confused, you grabbed your garden gloves and began swiping the soil away.
When the gloves tore, exposing your bare flesh to shards of glass.
You knew you should not have cheapened out on gloves; your cloth ones had torn so easily against the foreign glass, and now you were bleeding all over the soil and blades of glass. Before the situation got any worse, you left to tend to your hands and opted to return to the garden later to finish getting the produce out. You were uncertain if they would be safe anymore with the glass-ridden soil if you were being honest. You felt stupid as you looked back and noticed the gleaming shards in the black dirt.
So now your hands were heavily cleaned and bandaged, rubber gloves covering them so you could conduct your business as always. Was your garden glass issue caused by this new gang? Your gut told you that it was.
Your day went on as normal. A cheese pizza reminiscent of a s’more, three pizzas with eggplants, corn pizza with pesto and pizza sauce, and cheese garlic bread… same old same old.
Around 9 PM, close enough to closing that you had started cleaning some of your equipment, a man came in. He looked young and casual, and certainly eager enough to order a pepperoni pizza. Finding his enthusiasm silly, you made the simple pizza for him carefully and with your usual love. When you finished, you brought the pizza to him, and he certainly looked overjoyed about it, sitting at one of the tables and devouring every slice. Your day-to-day was typically simple with no drama or chaos, often causing you to think back to the ZArena case and how you had assisted Nasir Amin on the case. You had called him quite often, hadn’t you? Even if it made you appear silly, you would ask hints on what to do next, despite already having a plan in mind.
You shook that thought off. Simply put, even though the days were more boring lately, seeing customers who liked your pizza made it all worth it.
Like this pepperoni pizza guy, who was currently approaching your counter and–
“Listen here, Ovenist.”
Oh… grabbing your wrist with enough strength to pull you over if he so wanted. Lovely. He must have bought the pizza to make sure he could observe your actions and catch you alone during closing.
“Who are you?” You ask, attempting to retrieve your wrist from his tight, unrelenting grasp. Your wrestling was only put to a stop when he took his other hand and slammed your head against the smooth counter.
“L i s t e n. So annoying. I don’t need to give you a name, only that I’m here representing the Thin Crust Gang. We have one demand.”
You continued to struggle under his hand, trying to reach for your phone in your back pocket as you did so.
“We are very interested in how you obtained this property, Ovenist. Interested because it will no longer be yours very soon.”
You looked up at him to shoot him a glare, but all you received in return was a deeply evil smile.
“Sell us the place amicably, and we will pay you for it fairly. Well, as fair as we deem it. Don’t sell it and…. Well. You have one week. Tell the WPA, and you will be dead on the spot.”
With that, he threw you backwards, causing you to crash into your brick wall with a yelp.
He placed a business card down and left the building as you reeled from the effects of what had just happened.
Your phone had barely survived, but you managed to grab it and call the first person you trusted who could come at this hour.
“Flash?”
Flash had rushed over after hearing your panicked voice, and after helping you close, promised to look into the Thin Crust Gang for you. You left out how you had been threatened, not wanting to worry the poor guy. He really cared for you and the business, and he was willing to do any research for you since you had believed in him.
It had been a couple of days since then, and the business card still lay within your pockets. Buying this store had been your dream; you had worked so, so very hard to set it up. You literally endured Alicante’s initial boastful personality, a strange group of cultists, a narcissistic blue-haired scientist, a beautiful yet mysterious woman, and a whole investigation for a robbery, all to keep your dream and store alive. You could not lose it to a small gang just because they wanted the store! What that meant for you, you had no idea. You had no idea why they wanted your store to begin with. Your garden was still in shambles as well. Clearly, they had come in to ruin it even more, so you had to give up on saving funds and buying all the ingredients instead.
And they had told you not to tell anyone in the WPA. That meant keeping it a secret from Nasir as well.
…What would happen to you if you didn’t sell the place?
“Ovenist?”
You gasped and turned around to face your customer.
“I’m so sorry I–”
It was Nasir himself, staring at you through his sunglasses as usual. The breath you had stopped in your throat finally escaped as you let out a small gasp.
“What can I get for you, N?” You sweetly asked, affectionately referring to him by the name he went by as an agent. You liked teasing him with it; could he not even have come up with at least a fake name?
“A pizza, anything will do.”
“That again! Do you really not have a preference?”
“Fine, fine, then a vegetarian pizza.”
“That’s more like it.” You smile, leaving to go prepare it. He had exhaustion written all over his gentle face, indicating why he had stopped visiting you so often. As promised, the PNN had continued to provide updates, but it was clear the WPA was at a standstill in their investigation. Nasir must have been spending nights on end investigating.
The pizza crossed through the oven, and you carefully cut and slid the pizza into the box.
You recalled how Nasir had originally communicated with you for the first time to begin with. Could you do the same somehow? Indicate somehow that the case now involved you?
You took a pen to the box, careful to make it look like you were writing a “thank you” message for a kind patron. However, you wrote a small message right under the bigger letters.
“help me”
That was all you felt you could get away with, scared that the gang had hacked into your security cameras. You quickly shut the box and walked out to Nasir with it, smiling as usual. As customers usually do, he looked inside to confirm you gave him the right order (not that he cared) and seemingly slowed his movements the moment he did. You kept your smile up, hoping that he would not say anything.
Of course he did not; he was a trained agent after all! He gave you a decent tip, and as he turned around, you felt his fingers brush up against yours. He shouted a normal thank you as he left with the pizza, held snug in both of his hands.
“Are you ready to sell yet, Ovenist?
“Absolutely not.”
That night, the same gang member had come to your store as you were closing. Your hands were shaking, but you were firm in your decision now. No selling, you were going to keep your property, thank you very much. Even if that meant risking your life.
“You do realize that either way, we will be taking the store by force if you continue to refuse?”
“Try me.” You smile, trying to seem unbothered. Inside, you were thinking “oh shit”.
“Oh, sure.” He responded, turning away and beginning to walk away. You sighed in relief as he appeared to leave, but when he suddenly turned around and ran toward you, you couldn't help but shriek. He jumped over your counter and pinned you to the wall he had thrown you against the other day. You felt the brick dig into the raw spots still on your head as he seized your hair and pulled your ear up to his mouth.
“A lowly ‘Ovenist’ should never talk back to kind souls who offer to buy their shitty property from them. This spot just happens to be the most popular, and once we take it over, we can use it to fund our own deals. We don’t even have to sell just pizza here, we can hide… smaller packets into the corners if someone paid for it.”
You shoved him away in rage. How dare they plan to use your store to sell illegal goods? How dare they?? Moreover, they were planning to use the popularity you had built up to their advantage!
“You can’t run this place without me.” You mutter, now too angry to think about anything else.
“No, we can’t. We never said anything about you leaving; our demand was just for you to sell the rights to this place to us. You’ll still be the ‘Ovenist’.”
He laughed as he approached you one more time, stabbing a pocket knife through the hand you rested on the counter.
“Lucky you.”
He continued to laugh as he finally left, leaving you with a bloody hand and a realization.
They were going to use you to run their scheme.
“A report just came in that one of the purported members just left the pizzeria you frequent, Nasir.”
“Start setting up a team, the Ovenist is in danger.”
“You know we can’t move without anything illegal going on. If we storm the place and nothing is happening–”
“I assure you that will never be the case. I need you to cooperate.”
“They’re dangerous! Crazy dangerous.”
After a quick visit to the emergency clinic, Flash was waiting outside for you. He listed off all of the operations they were planning, including a drug operation in a pizzeria. Welp.
“That’s not your place they’re talking about, right? If it is, I’ll–”
“Don’t worry Flash, it’s not.”
“I’m so glad! They’re known for brutal torture and coercion, and I really wouldn’t want you to go through anything like that. Hey, what happened to your hand?”
“I burned it while baking a pizza.”
It was the night of your deadline, and your store had been closed for the day. You weren’t making any pizzas with your injured hand, and your anxiety led you to an inability to focus anyway.
The usual gang member came through the front door, letting the moonlight in as he marched, while you heard some noise from your garden. More members were here this time.
“Nothing here is up to you, Ovenist. Sell the place amicably, or we’ll take it by force.”
“You will not take anything from me. This pizzeria belongs to me!”
In your hand was your trusty pizza cutter, equipped to protect yourself even if you knew that it wasn’t much.
“If you cared that much, you would not be defending this place by yourself, would you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You did not inform the WPA of this, did you? We were watching you, even through the cameras, and you kept your trap shut except to that one brat we can’t get a hold of.”
So they didn’t see that message. Good.
“Because I care about it, I’m here by myself. I can’t rely on others for everything.”
Protecting the thing you loved most, isn’t that what one does?
“Whatever. You’re coming with us.”
The gang members who had approached from the garden were now in the shop and ready to grab you from behind, rendering your weapon almost useless.
“Hello?!”
“Flash! Is that you?”
“N! God, why do you never answer the phone?”
“I was busy setting up a team to investigate what’s happening at that pizzeria and–”
“Well, get that team out here STAT! They’re in there right now!”
The pizza cutter clattered to the floor after only managing to leave some cuts on the men who had subdued you by pinning you to the ground. On the way down, you had hit your head on the side of our counter, rendering you dizzy with your senses clouded. You could barely tell what everyone in the rooms was saying. You wished someone outside would notice, but they were smart enough to do this all in the dark and mostly behind your counter. Most members were busy tying your hands together, while the others searched the premises for your deed.
It was right about the time you had wondered if your note to Nasir had gone to naught, when the men had found your deed in the back office. You had thought you had hidden well…They really were watching you this whole time. They were ready to haul you off to sign some forms, and the store would become theirs. You felt delirious, and you could barely move even if you wanted.
When the front door slammed open, and you could hear sirens outside, that’s when you knew you had at least barely made the right choices in the matter. As you heard several footsteps running into the store, you felt a gang member pick you up as they ran. You felt the cool air of the night hit you as they ran out into your garden, leaving everyone else behind. They clearly thought that if they at least had you, something would come of all this, even if they were caught. As you regained your ability to see, you heard the person who was holding you suddenly gasp as they froze and took a couple of steps back.
“Put them down.”
The gang member hesitated for a minute, instead opting to hold you closer.
“NOW.” You heard a warning shot go off, and the gang member dropped you without so much as lowering themself down as they ran away. Instead of hitting the ground, however, you were caught by the person who had the gun.
“Ovenist?”
Which was Nasir. His sunglasses were still on, but you could still somehow see his softened eyes behind them. He had saved you, and all it took was two words on a soggy pizza box.
After the exciting night, you were dismayed to find out that you were not allowed to return to your apartment, and instead had to stay in a hotel room with some security. It bothered you to no end, but you understood that the gang would surely come after you again, especially since the WPA was able to retrieve the deed.
Several switching of cars later, you were led to a more luxurious hotel with a full, clearly suspicious outfit on, sunglasses and all. It made you miss your Medusa eye repelling glasses; you much preferred those.
Nasir was the one who ultimately led you to your room, making absolutely sure you were not followed on the way there.
“Nasir, I’m just a simple Ovenist; the WPA does not have to go through this much effort for me.” You say as he opens the door for you. The room seemed very cozy.
“A life is a life. And besides, you are not just any Ovenist, you are one the entire city adores. That includes me.”
You hid your face. Was this? No, it could not be… but it surely was. This feeling of blood rushing to your face was not unfamiliar to you, but it was one you had not felt in such a long time.
Were you developing feelings for him?
“Thank you.” You smiled as you sat on your bed. Nasir nodded and went to leave, but stopped in his tracks just as he had reached the door.
“N?” You asked, craning your neck to see why he had stopped.
“Oh dear Ovenist, you know my name.”
You laughed, “Right, yes, Nasir.”
The man approached you, and before you knew it, he was next to you, pulling you in for a tighter embrace than you had ever experienced before. It was warm, and oddly comforting. It felt like it had lasted for an eternity.
“Wear this if you feel chilly. I will see you tomorrow.”
Nasir removed his blue coat and draped it over your shoulders as he went to leave once more, finally reaching for the doorknob.
“I’m glad you are safe.”
As the door shut behind him, you immediately went in to faceplant onto a pillow.
What were you going to do now?