fandomtownies | Nemesis Island Town Hall, Thursday Morning

The Town hall over at Nemesis was very similar to the one over at Fandom. The cheerful receptionist had a bowl of mints and the waiting area even had a box of sanitary wipes in case anyone wished to use them.

The only thing that looked ominous were the words "Nemesis Mayoral Office" which were emblazoned on the door.

[ nfi and nfb due to distance. and so we begin... ]

	Cable didn't trust a damn second of it. "This isn't going to be good," he said, resisting the urge to grit his teeth as he reached for the door.
	"Probably not. I think we can make it better than expected though," Zoe said, surveying the area as she followed him.
	"I don't doubt we can," he replied, and the door clicked open under his hand, "But right now, it could go either way..."
	"Well hello there!" Mayor Wilkins said cheerfully, as he got up from behind his desk and walked over to greet his visitors. "Welcome! Ms. Washburn-Winchester and Mr. Summers. Please! Come in! Come in! Have a seat. I can't tell you how long we've been waiting to meet you."
	"No, thank you." Cable's bearing seemed amenable enough, even if his shoulders were straight and his eyes were staring straight at the man-- sizing him up.
	"We're quite all right standing," Zoe added, doing some sizing up of her own as she tried to get an idea of what was going on. "You asked to see us?"
	"Well, suit yourself," the Mayor said with a shrug as he sat back down in his chair. "And I glad you came. It's not often that people of our positions get to mingle together in a small social setting. Right now we're just waiting for the headmaster of the school to join us before we get things started." He gave Cable another once over, his grin never fading. "Now, your name is Summers? Correct? No relation to a little slip of a girl named Buffy? Of course not. Surely a coincidence. Looks like you got a little spot on that shiny little arm of yours, would you like a wipe?"
	"No, thank you," Cable repeated, and now his arms were crossed. "I'm a little more interested in why you've decided to park next to my island."
	"Your island?" Wilkins said with a chuckle. "Well aren't we a little possessive. Doesn't matter, really. You see we here on this island like what your island has to offer. Woods. Magic. That wonderful little bit of technology you have lurking just below the surface." He smile got a bit more sinister as he leaned forward on his desk. "And we'll do just about anything to it. Isn't that right... Headmaster?"
	The Headmaster in question stepped through the door just then, wearing an inordinate amount of pink and a too bright smile. "Quite right, Mr. Mayor," she chirped, giggling at both Cable and Zoe. "My, my, quite the pair you two are. I am so very glad you could join us. Perhaps, we could even do this diplomatically." Not that she thought that would happen. She didn't even want it to happen.
	Cable's expression cooled considerably. "Umbridge," he said. "Give me a good reason why I shouldn't throw the both of you into the ocean!"
	Umbridge giggled, seemingly uncaring about Cable's threat. "Oh, now, there's no need for threats. The mayor here has been exceptionally nice and accommodating and you've decided to threaten me. Tsk, tsk. Besides, if you even took a step toward me, you would find your knees attached to your cheeks." And she giggled again.
	"Such a lovely woman," Wilkins said with a cheerful grin. "I don't understand why you people let her go."
	"It was a matter of keeping our students safe," Zoe said, no longer bothering to hide her anger. "You'll find that we take the safety of the students and the people of our island very seriously."
	"I think I'd be able to handle it," Cable told Umbridge, his voice straining with anger that was also reaching the edge of 'barely contained'. "A good reason, now, please. Because I can assure you I'm entirely capable of disposing of this entire damn island if you make as much as a wrong move. *Talk*."
	"I assure you that we are also capable of disposing of your own island... if we so wished," Mayor said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "But where would that get us? Now we're not unreasonable people." Wilkins pushed forward a sheet of papers to the Fandom Principal and Mayor. "This is a list of students, faculty members and town citizens that some of our people have a... marked interest in. What we propose to you is a tournament. If you win? You go on your merry way. If you lose? We get your island and you leave peacefully."
	"You can't be serious," Zoe said, focusing first on the list of students.
	Cable just frowned. He still radiated anger, but as his eyes combed over the list, he said nothing. And then he was done, slamming one of the papers down on the Mayor's desk with slightly more violence than was absolutely necessary. "We'll do it."
	Zoe turned on Cable in an instant, but didn't say anything. Any words she wanted to have with him would make them look weak in front of the others. She took one last glance at the list of students, and passed that over as well. "Yes, we'll do it." There would be time later for yelling.
	"Gosh Delores," The mayor said with a chuckle. "You made me think that these people were somewhat disagreeable. They seem downright hospitable if you ask me. I didn't even have to threaten to invade their island."
	"Apparently, I was pleasantly wrong," she said, pitching her voice higher to mask some disbelief. "But now, everyone's wrong every so often. This must have just been my day." She paused and looked thoughtful. "Or perhaps, Mr. Mayor, they just know what's good for them."
	"If that was all," Cable replied. His left eye flashed dangerously with its own internal light. "We'll be leaving."
	"Sure you won't stay for a snack?" Mayor Wilkins offered. "We have cookies."
	"We have other things to attend to," Zoe said, glaring at all of them now, even Cable.
	"You should be damn glad," Cable snarled, turning towards the door, "that I'm not putting a bullet in your head right now!"
	"Ta ta now!" Umbridge said, unfazed by the threats. She even waved daintily. "We'll be seeing you soon."
	Zoe let herself be content with thoughts of violence against Umbridge as she followed Cable out the door.
	Once outside of the office, Cable's eyes narrowed. "We need to get armed."
	"First, I need you to explain to me what the hell you were thinking back there," Zoe replied.
	His eye flashed again. Cable began walking. "I scoped out the island while we were here," he said, "They're not bluffing. We need the time to do what we do best, and in the meantime, it'll keep violence on the island to a minimum-- while I work out how to hurl their asses back into the ocean they came from." He managed to keep something of a lid on his anger, but it was still a tangible undercurrent. "It's a risk, but it beats the alternative."
	"It very well might be, but you did not have the right to decide whether or not it was an acceptable risk without discussing it with me," Zoe said, keeping pace with him as he walked. "Those are my students you just put on the line!"
	"They'd be on the line one way or another," he replied. "We don't have the time to debate chain of command." He glanced at her. "Trust me. I know what I'm doing. Truly. Utterly."
	"This isn't about a chain," Zoe said, holding on tightly to her anger. "I have worked so hard to try to get the students to trust me and their teachers, and you just completely undermined all of that. If you're so sure you know what you're doing, then fine. You get to explain this to them. And if anything happens to them, you're going to be the one in the ocean."
	"We'll get to that when the chips fall," Cable said, trying to infuse his voice with something more reasonable as the anger settled to a dull roar in his stomach. He turned into the next, narrow hallway, "As it stands, I did what I had to do." Making the split second decisions had always been his job.
	"I just hope that what you did was the right choice," Zoe said. "For all our sakes."
	"Trust me," he repeated. "This isn't my first rodeo. It's all part of the plan."
	"Oh good, you have a plan. That makes me feel much better," Zoe said dryly.
	"It should."
	Zoe sighed, knowing there wasn't much they could do now but prepare. "We need to tell everyone what's going on. Maybe we can convince people to stay inside and out of the way." It sounded idiotic to say, knowing the people of the island as well as she did, but it wouldn't hurt to try.
	"The former, certainly," he said, with a nod. "It might also be an idea to contact the librarian in case we can dig something up from our archives."
	"I can speak to him," Zoe said, not trusting Cable with more than she had to at the moment. "I'm sure he'll be willing to help."
	"I'll deal with the town," Cable said. And whatever else might happen to run into his path, he didn't say. "Good luck."
	"Good luck to you too," Zoe said. "I'm afraid we're both going to need it."