Dine and Dash

  “For operators of buffets, it is important to remember that you are often a lifesaver for speedsters, but this doesn’t mean you are required to take a complete loss on the concept. It is suggested you keep premium items on offer, but at an additional cost, or that you have a strict time limit for eating before additional fees are applied. Another tool that has been used is to charge not by the seat for the meal, but by the plate used. Three dollars a plate sounds like a deal, and can still be profitable if offerings are managed right, and speedsters will end up paying a bit more, without feeling like they’re bent over a barrel.”

  Restaurant Operations for Idiots

  “Um… what just happened?” Solaris asked as one of the tiny Anzys grabbed her bowl of noodles and downed it.

  "No, wait! Grab them!" Elenore dove across the table at the Anzy that wasn't eating, only for the girl to blur and jump on Elenore’s back, before leaping away towards the door. The other one giggled in a maniacal, even creepy way, before downing the second bowl of Ramen with the speed and grace of an anime character.

  "She's budding! Catch them!" El shouted

  Solaris reached out to grab the eating Anzy, the little clone made a rude gesture and ran, "Mei, see if you can catch them!"

  The Chinese girl nodded and in a blink was gone chasing the little creature. Solaris grabbed her phone. And called Penny. "Penny, Anzy has split into two miniature speedsters. Is your Anzy okay and can she call the other Anzys?"

  "Anzy's right next to me, she's fine. Hold on." A quick, muffled conversation happened. "She is calling them now. I don't know how they work out who carries the main phone in their group."

  “I figured they just have five phones.” Solaris said. “What is the best way to corral the half Anzi’s.”

  "They do have five phones; they all get text messages but calls only go to one of them." Elenore said. "It's to prevent all of her answering at once, I think. Last time she budded, we had to use butterfly nets. And the entire school chased them in a relatively sparse desert area. This is Tokyo. I don't know how long the whole process will take, and her mini-me's aren't really completely sane, but my memory is she will go looking for food, eat till she gets sleepy, and eventually grow into a full Anzy. I

  “That is not going to narrow it down. This place is as foodie a town as New York.” Solaris said. “Penny, Mei went after one of them and isn’t back, yet which is ominous. I’m going to go try and check on her.” She hung up. “Well let’s go find Mei and then go fox hunting for Anzys.”

  “They stepped out of the restaurant, finding Mei and a chibi Anzy engaged in very high-speed hand to hand combat. A crowd had formed to watch, since it didn't look so much like a violent confrontation as a martial arts stunt show.

  “And her mini clones still have her combat prowess.” Solaris said, looking reluctantly impressed. “This is not going to be easy. Any suggestions on how to find and catch the second one?”

  "Hold on, I have an idea." She pulled out her phone and dialed Ren Arita, the applicant for their IT position."Hello, yeah, looking forward to meeting? Good. Thing is, I need a favor now. Let's call this a test run on your skills. I'm going to send you the picture of someone I'm looking for. She is probably going to be somewhere with lots of food, and you might get more than one hit on this, but I bet she'll turn up on social media from around Tokyo. Can you do that for me?"

  Solaris watched as Elenore nodded a few times, then checked her wrist, then she dialed again, this time calling Margot Saffold, their Welsh dragon applicant. A similar conversation happened, she hung up and returned to Solaris. "Okay, I asked our Welsh and Japanese applicants for computer and social tech stuff to see if they could find reports of her on social media. In a busy restaurant, someone’s going to take her picture the way she looks and acts and eats."

  On different sides of the world Ren and Margot began filtering social media, one using her knowledge of the media and the other using a program searching for facial recognition.

  Margot texted a picture of a tiny Anzy standing on a table next to a conveyor belt of sushi. Scooping each plate of food into her mouth and dropping the plate into the rapidly growing pile next to her,

  "Have one, about three blocks away at a Sushi place. I think Hiroshi found her too.” Elenore said pleased, then frowned and paled. “Hiroshi’s picture…is at a fish market and is time stamped the same. Did Anzy confirm if her other selves answered?"

  “Oh, dear.”Solaris called Penny back. “Were you able to reach the other Three Anzy clones? We have located 3 of her mini’s and there should only be two?”

  "I got two of them.” Anzy said, the phone apparently on speaker. “I can't get the me that was visiting the fish market."

  “Well one of the mini Anzy was at the fish market, and another is close to us at a sushi restaurant. So, we just need to find one more.”

  “I am texting Z and Erica. After Mei they have the best chance of keeping one busy if they can’t pin her. We should go to the sushi place.” Elenore sighed. “Where she is just looting tiny trains all over. “

  “Right, how long does the feasting section of her division take?” Solaris asked as her group made its way to the conveyor restaurant.

  “It took two days before, but they tried to control her intake. With how some of them are eating she might hit napping time earlier. “

  “Of course, last time she was showing signs for days. “

  She walked into the sushi restaurant where many of the patrons were recording the small Anzy as she continued to eat everything that made it to her several stacks of plates surrounding her. Solaris sighed and walked to the register. “Hello, I apologize for my ravenous little friend. Please charge her meal and the other guest’s meal on this card.” She said in lightly accented Japanese. “Please, let everyone enjoy their fill.”

  "Um, of course. Are you removing her?" The hostess asked, nervously.

  "Yes, I'll flank her with my cats, and try to push her into you, Marcus. She'll struggle and kick, fair warning."

  “Would it be easier to let her eat? Until she passes out?” Solaris asked.

  “Yeah. I am freaked out. Sorry. “

  “Is that okay miss? If we let her eat till she falls asleep. Solaris asked. “I’ll pay for it and everyone else’s food.

  "Well, as you are paying for everyone's meal, I don't suppose it's an issue." The woman was a bit nervous, seeing as the girl was obviously enhanced. "We'll just move people from that section."

  Solaris stepped to the middle of the restaurant and bowed politely. “I apologize for my companion, to make up for the inconvenience, everyone’s food and drink will be on me.”

  Eleanor's phone beeped, Ren texted her the location of an all you can eat hotpot restaurant, where one of the chibis was working her way through piles of meat and veggies.

  “Marcus, can you go pay for her, and keep her there while we deal with the other two?”

  “Can do” Marcus turned and ran out as Mei walked in carrying an Anzy under one arm. Bring her over here. You get food from the top escalator the other You eats from the bottom. Solaris said firmly.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  The two girls grumbled but obeyed, mostly stealing from each other whenever they thought they could get away with it."

  "If she budded twice, that means she's upgrading to seven copies. I didn't know she was using her abilities that much." Elenore admitted.

  "Well, she seems to be always running at least two copies, one at the house and one at the shop, most of the time I'd say she's running three copies cause she also puts one at the food truck. Zoya said. How many copies was she running consistently before?

  "It varies so much it just is a challenge to keep track, though they were usually close to each other. I wonder if range has an effect. I'd bet she's been running four or five fairly regularly."

  “So, we have three pinned down so far.” She is called Penny. “How are things going at the fish market, we have three Anzy corralled at restaurants.”

  "This is one of the largest open food and grocery markets on the planet, far as I know... we've almost had her cornered twice, but she keeps slipping away. Also, we need to call the hotel and tell them a sushi grade tuna is going to be delivered. Also somehow bid on one when sneaking up on her. I have no idea what we're going to do with that, but I've bought cars for less."

  “I will let them know maybe we can have it cut for the banquet. I’ll send Mei and Zoya your way. Marcus is heading to clone 3 who is devouring a hotpot.”

  "Roger than that. She at least can't punch him in the head. She's small, and wimpy, but hit me twice in the damn kidney. Ouch."

  “I’m sorry dear, I can try and have our internet people track her. “

  "I'm not sure how reliable that would be here, other than to confirm she's still here, but let me know if she moves. Wait, there she is!" The phone went dead as Penny apparently rushed off.

  “So, we now own a tuna that is being delivered. Mei, Zoya would you please head to the fish market and help Penny catch the last Anzy. We have it covered here.”

  "I'm on my way." Z said, running out, looking up what she was going to have to do to get to the place on her phone.

  Penny cursed as the small filthy Anzy ran though the market, Mercedes going behind them with a card paying the vendors for the havoc the chibi hero was causing.

  The tiny Anzy wasn't running at top speed. She was laughing and having a fantastic time, with a chicken skewer in one hand, and a trio of octopus balls in the other. She gobbled the octopus’ balls, before doing a baseball slide under a fish vendors display, hopping up on the crates behind him to jump over the next display, cutting a right angle, and heading for the next tasty scent she picked up, gnawing on her chicken as she ran.

  “Damn it. Anzy break right your clone hopped lanes. Erica, Talia, see if you can cut her off. Mercedes pay the fish stall. Shit she’s heading for the Cotton candy booth!

  "Ahh man, that'll just make her faster." Anzy moaned, not at all equipped to keep up with her mini clone as it was.

  Erica was having better luck, easily weaving through the crowd in the market, and having already adjusted her direction to intercept. She reached the stall just as the micro-chef did and was instantly hard pressed from a flurry of kicks and punches as she prevented the girl from jumping at a huge bundle of cotton candy.

  “Hisssss!” Anzy tried Arian for the candy, and after being blocked again then ran for a booth selling onigiri. Grabbing one in each hand and running.

  “Didn’t she just hiss at me? What is wrong with you?” Erica yelled at the full-sized Anzy as she ran past.

  “Don’t. Blame me for rage goblin me. I don’t know why she is like this either. “

  The little clone shoved the rice balls into her mouth devouring them looking for her next target as an older lady laughed at the chaos. “SUMIMASEN,” she called out to the clone, when the mini looked over she tossed a fried piece of chicken to her.

  “Yes!” the clone shouted in joy, jumping to eat the chicken, catching it out of the air. The next old lady joined her friend in laughing, took some mochi from her own store and tossed it at the clone.

  The third time the tiny girl jumped into the air, her larger duplicate tackled her while she was mid jumping, pinning her down with a hug involving both arms and legs. "I got her!"

  “Eeeer, naaaaaaw, foooouuuuuuud.” The chibi hissed and fought, the old woman selling karagi filled a box and brought it over. Reminds me of grandson, eat everything.

  "Yay!" The mini clone took the chicken, and munched happily, a huffing Mercedes stumbling up and offering money to the woman. "Please bring more?" She said, having lost track of how much she was paying, and not really caring.

  The woman patted Mercedes, “Little one needs food?” She went back to her stand and grabbed another container, the mochi lady bringing out a container of her own wares, a young mother with a stroller offered Penny a container of baby wipes.

  "Aragato." Penny thanked the woman, shaking her head, the sylvan girl giving money to all the friendly old ladies offering foods. She dialed Solaris. "We got ours, more or less. The Granny brigade responded."

  “Wonderful, if they get tired of feeding them, I’ll send you to Marcus. He's at a hot pot restaurant with number three.”

  "Yeah, great. Do we have any idea how long this is going to be a thing?" The question was for Anzy. "Given enough food, they'll kind of go into a food coma for a while to process, then go looking for more. We should have an hour to move them in their resting state."

  “I think the bathtub in Solaris’s bathroom should be good when we get to the growing part of the process.” Eleanore said.

  "Why would we need a bathtub?"

  "They will need to be soaking in water while they sleep." Anzy said. "When they're at that stage, they go completely fall asleep and kind of glow a little? It's not exactly the right description, but the best I can give. We'll know when we're to that point."

  “What she’s not mentioning is they get super-hot, bath water helps keep them cool enough not to damage the environment” Mercedes added as another vendor brought another sleeve of Takoyaki, and a kid brought over some fish shaped red bean cakes.

  "Right, bathtub, got it."

  "At that point they grow over about twenty-four hours to full size and wake up to poof. Then I should have more of me I can be."

  “Be all you can be, be an Anzy!” Zoya sang as another vendor handed the ravenous little monster a fruit and milk bread sandwich full of sugary whipped cream.

  “I don’t think I will ever be more than a platoon. “Anzy chuckled.

  The clone moaned in pleasure at the sugary treat, a little girl giggling handed her a fresh bubble tea. “You must be getting thirsty.”

  She chirped something that sounded like 'thank you' in a vague way and drank the sweet drink. Just as she finished, her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she passed out. "There's the first food coma. We should get her someplace we can secure, and bring more food to, when she wakes up, we're going to be back to ravenous gremlin."

  A short while later the four napping chibi were on the couch in Solaris’s suite. “They are cute.now that they aren’t trying to eat the walls. What food should I order for them?”

  "High in protein and carbs. Veggies don't seem to matter but can't hurt." Anzy said. "Milk for drinking. Basically, we're looking to give them energy to burn more than materials to work with. Don't ask me how it works, no one could ever explain it to me."

  So, meat pizza, Ramen, sushi, and sandwiches. Solaris said. Her suite came with staff, so she waved the woman over. “Yuriko, could you and your coworkers please call for takeout? We will need about one-hundred kilos of food and 10 Gallons of milk.”

  "Hai, Solaris-Sama." she said, hurrying off to summon the items. She'd heard what was needed, and called down to the kitchen service room, figuring the focus was on quantity instead of gourmet. Standards would be met, but it would be expedited.

  “Well, our first day in Japan has been exciting.” Marcus said rubbing Mercedes feet, the plant powered girl whimpering, she had not worn running shoes.

  "This is very true." Penny admitted. "And we spent an awesome amount on food. Anzy, I don't mean to blame, but did you have no warning?"

  She blushed. "I usually start getting a little itchy, kind of like rashes without reddening, for days before this happens, with intensity increasing. This time, it seems like it all happened at once. I don't know if I've just been too focused on other things to notice, or if I have just been pushing that hard in general."

  “Well at least it was only a minor disaster, and it did prove the worth of Ren and Margot. They were able to find Anzy’s surprisingly fast.” Solaris said approvingly.

  "I've already informed both of them that they'll have contracts instead of interviews when they get here." Elenore chuckled.

  “Well, Ren is here somewhere. He is Japanese if I remember correctly.” Solaris said teasingly and you wanted to hire Margot as soon as you saw her resume and Instagram.”

  “My instincts were proven right. “

  Solaris nodded, "Excellent. Well, we will get our new Anzy's taken care of and see what tomorrow brings."

  The chibi girls awoke and fell on the offered feast half an hour later, consuming all but one rice ball, one plate of spaghetti Neapolitan, and a single bite of sashimi. At that point they began growing warm, even hot to touch.

  "Okay Let’s get them in the bath." Anzy said, Solaris picked up two, Marcus grabbed one. And Anzy grabbed the last putting them in the large Japanese tub and running cold water over the clones.

  “This stage takes twelve to twenty-four hours, at least in the past. My mother said my first split from two to three took a day, while my 13th birthday was a whirlwind done before midnight. Fortunately, no party was planned. “

  "Well from what you said we just need to wait, I don't think we had anything planned tomorrow, so it shouldn't be a burden for some of us to stay and watch the clones evolve.

  "I'll keep an eye on myself, and hey, more food for me on this trip!" Anzy sang.

  The group laughed. "Well, you expanded how many of you can work front of house now, didn't you tell me five was perfect for the kitchen." Elenore said.

  "Depends on the kitchen, but at this point, running the restaurant as well as my duties at the house are easy-peasy. Leaves plenty to help myself out, or do other things like at the shop."

  "Overachiever." Penny teased.