Madie Beartri

The Bear News main office was located a couple blocks from the High School in an abandoned store front. Evan and JT took turns manning the office during the day.

Evan thumbed thru papers in the back office looking for a reference for a pending news article when the doorbell chimed indicating a customer had walked into the store. “Can I help you?” he called out as he continued to search for the allusive piece of paper. “I’ll be there in a second. Fill out the form on the desk if you can write.”

Recruiting the strongest men away from the other local gangs would ensure Hulk’s rise to power. Obsessed with building an army that would do his bidding, he sent two of his goons to the local paper to place an ad.

“Hello, is somebody there?” Evan said as he walked into the front room expecting to see a sad and lonely single person hoping to place a free personal ad in tomorrow’s paper. The two Central Bobcat goons were a surprise.

Relax, play it cool, he said to himself, “Uumm, how can I help you?”

One of the goons handed Evan a piece of paper, “Xavier wants this placed in your newspaper. He also wants posters displayed around town with the same message.”

Evan read the note. The Central Bobcats were recruiting for their gang.
As editor and chief of the paper Evan determined the final content placed in the Bear news. He had no desire to publish a recruitment ad for Xavier, the Hulk to build an army of bullies.

“This isn’t something we typically run in our paper and even if we did, it would be very costly to you. I don’t have the resources to print posters at the moment. We used all our card stock for the Fall Festival posters.” Evan handed the paper back to the guard. “Sorry!”

The goon reaches across the counter and grabs Evan by his shirt. “We aren’t payin! And if you don’t put this in your newspaper, we will burn the place down with you inside!”

Evan didn’t like being strong armed into doing something he felt strongly against. He also didn’t want to die. “It’s going to take a while to acquire the ink and poster paper needed for this project.” Hoping to avoid a beating he added. ”Give me a few days. I’ll need to come up with funds and contact my supplier.”

The goon releases Evan with such strong force he stumbles backward and falls to the floor behind the counter, “You’ve got three days!” He tosses the note down to Evan. “Three days and we will be back.”

Evan breathed a sigh of relief as he hears the door chime indicating the Central goons vacated his business. A couple minutes later JT returns from his assignment, unaware the Central Bobcats had paid a visit.

“You would not believe who was just here!” Evan said as he walked around the counter. “The Central Bobcats want us to place a recruitment ad in the paper….and they want posters placed around town.” Evan hands the note to JT.

JT reads the note, “Hell NO! We are not recruiting for the Central Bobcats.”

“They said they would burn the Bear News down with me in it if we didn’t comply with their request. I told them we didn’t have the card stock for the posters and that we would have to come up with funds and contact our supplier. I bought us three days. Any ideas? ”

“We could always notify the Constable. Maybe his posse could give us some protection.” It was the only idea JT could think of and it didn’t sound realistic in the long run but he threw it out there.

Evan shook head, “We’re screwed. If we don’t place the ad in our paper Xavier and his goons will burn us out. If we do place the ad everyone in the community is going to think Bear Country is friends with Xavier and his thugs. We need to talk to Madie.”