Apollo brought our heroes to New Donk City Hall. The hall was one of the tallest buildings in all of New Donk. The skyscraper sat at number twelve on the list of the tallest buildings in the United States; right below the Bank of America tower at 1,199 feet tall. City Hall was located in the business district of New Donk which was located on main street further west leading right into Central New Donk. Apollo pulled the limo into the City Hall Plaza and parked the limo. The plaza was one big concrete circle in the middle with three areas of grass around it in an arrow shape. Ollie and Sam got out of the car and marveled at the skyscraper. The night air was a bit chilly but not too cold.
"What do you think the mayor wants with us?" Ollie asked Sam.
"I don't know," Sam answered, "maybe she'll give us a key to the city or something."
"That would be wild if we got a key to the city after stopping a toad infestation and a burglary." Ollie jokingly said. Sam chuckled. The two then walked through the big glass double doors with gold trimmings into the main lobby of City Hall. There the heroes saw Isabelle who was pacing back and forth (still in her nightgown) waiting for Ollie and Sam. She heard the doors open and saw Ollie and Sam and got a little giddy. She quickly approached them and shook their hands.
Hello! I am Isabelle and I am Mayor Pauline's assistant!" Isabelle said, introducing herself with a cheery attitude. "Sorry for the abrupt limousine, but Mayor Pauline requested that she see you immediately."
"Are we in trouble?" Sam asked.
"Not at all! She just wants to have a small chat about your future here protecting New Donk." Isabelle explained. She led Ollie and Sam to the lobby elevators and the three got in the middle one and Isabelle hit the top floor (floor 33). The elevator went up at medium pace. From the elevator, Ollie and Sam could see the whole city and the bright lights that emitted. The elevator reached the top floor and the three exited the elevator. Isabelle let them to the right and then to the left where there was a long red carpeted hallway with gold lighting. At the end of the hall was Isabelle mahogany wide desk and next to the desk were two wooden double doors to Pauline's office.
"She'll be in there to talk to you shortly." Isabelle said with a smile. Ollie averted his eyes to not look at Isabelle's gown. Sam and Ollie then walked through the double doors. Pauline's office was big. The carpet was a dark red with gold circle patterns on it. There were three massive windows that showed the best view of the city. Her desk seemed to be the same wood as Isabelle's, but looked more fancy. On both sides of the room were two massive bookcases filled with all kinds of books from history books to old city documents that were preserved. There weren't any chairs to sit in so Ollie and Sam just had to stand to wait, in the dark.
"Should we turn on the light?" Ollie asked. Before Sam could answer, Pauline came into the room and flipped on the light giving the room a white bright light. She got a good look of Sam and Ollie and the two got a good look of Pauline who was wrapped in a red slick robe and had a trench coat over; with red slippers to match.
"Why were you two standing in the dark?" she asked.
"There's no real answer to that." Ollie responded. She chuckled and went and sat at her desk. Her chair was a big leather chair that looked really comfortable. Like sitting on a pillow. Pauline relaxed in her chair and began to analyze Sam and Ollie. Our heroes stood there awkwardly.
"Sorry. I'm just getting a good look at you two." Pauline said. "So, we need to talk about your actions as of late."
"Are we in trouble?" Sam asked.
"You're not in any huge trouble. If anything, I appreciate you two showing up when you did. Those Mario Brothers can't handle every monster that appears in this city." said Pauline. Sam sighed a breath of relief. "I've been following you two since you stopped that Shy Guys bank robbery and since you stopped that runaway train." She then said pointing to Ollie and Sam respectfully, "And when you two stopped the most recent toad outbreak with the Mario Bros, I knew I had to get you in here.
"Why are we here?" asked Ollie.
"Yes. The reason why I got you in here. See kiddos, I cannot just have two unsupervised super heroes with potentially dangerous weapons just running around and stopping crime all willy nilly. I want to put you two on my official government payroll and make you two employees of New Donk City." Pauline explained, "You will have access to most resources and I will help you two out with your superhero endeavours whenever I can." Ollie and Sam were shocked by this. They didn't expect to be getting paid for their efforts.
"So you want to pay us for being superheroes?" Sam questioned.
"That's correct." Pauline answered. She kicked her feet up onto her desk and placed her hands in her lap.
"How much are we getting paid?" Ollie asked.
"How much do you want?" Pauline questioned. Ollie had a grin on his face. Sam noticed and got worried. She pulled Ollie to the side to have a little chat.
"We can't take money for this." Sam said.
"What do you mean we can't take money for this?" Ollie questioned.
"Superheroes don't get paid for their efforts. They do what they do out of the kindness of their hearts." explained Sam.
"Sam, those are comic books. This is real life. Our tech requires funding so that it can be efficient." said Ollie, "Besides, we don't have jobs anyway so we should take any money opportunity we get." Suddenly, an idea popped into Ollie's head. He went and sat on Pauline's desk. Pauline took her feet off of the table.
"Ms. Pauline, in addition to being on a payroll, I would like it if we could also have funding for all future projects." Ollie informed, "Because as it stands, I am nowhere near the power level that I need to be at to be an efficient hero." Pauline gave it some thought.
"A payroll and funding for projects?" she questioned, "What kind of future projects?"
"My little robots that I use to fight crime with are pretty much just prototypes, truth be told. But if I had the money and supplies available at all times, I could make them a whole lot better and become a better hero." Ollie said. He felt very important.
"Tell you what kid, I pay you both and I get you any supplies that you need for your projects." Pauline suggested.
"Any supplies we need?" Ollie asked.
"You want it, you can have it." Pauline said. Ollie liked the idea. Sam rejoined the conversation.
"Well I do think we have an ideal business partnership." Ollie said with a smirk.
"This isn't a business partnership." said Sam, "In doing this, we become employees of the government."
"And as employees of the New Donk City government, I am allowed to put you wherever I see fit and shut you down if the time comes to it. Hopefully though that day will never come." said Pauline with a smile. Ollie's heart sank a bit. He got off of the desk and went to stand next to Sam once more.
"Hold on, what do you mean put us where you see fit?" he questioned.
"You know, if I need you guys to guard a special event, guard me or help out with something with the community for publicity sake." Pauline answered. Ollie looked at Sam. Sam gave a "this is why I was worried" type of look to Ollie. Pauline noticed the two looking at each other funny.
"Is there something wrong?" Pauline asked.
"No ma'am nothing wrong." Sam quickly said.
"I am a woman of compromise. But hear this, you best take this deal that I am offering."
"What if we don't want to?" Ollie asked.
"You either take this deal or you will be considered vigilantes by the police department and they won't hesitate to shoot." explained Pauline. Sam and Ollie had scared looks on their faces. "Look kiddos, I'm just trynna help you guys. That gifted school is producing more and more trouble for us each day. As I said before, Mario and Luigi can't handle it all. You two being here will do a lot for the city. In a sense, I need you two to keep doing what you're doing. This deal will just ensure everything you're doing looks good on paper to my people and other cities who look at us." Pauline explained. Ollie and Sam looked at each other again. Ollie shrugged.
"Okay. You have yourself a deal." said Sam. Pauline smiled. She shook hands with Ollie and Sam and then pulled out a notebook from one of her desk drawers and a pen.
"Okay. What are your names?" Pauline asked.
"What?" Ollie asked.
"Your names. You know, secret identities." Pauline elaborated. Sam and Ollie did not answer. Pauline rolled her eyes. "Don't worry kids, I'm not gonna expose your identities to anyone. This is just for me to know."
"Okay then, Samantha Hale." said Sam.
"Oliver Miyamoto. But people call me Ollie. I spell that with two L's and an I and E." said Ollie.
"Just Oliver is fine." Pauline stated. She wrote down our heroes' names in the notebook. "I assume you two go to NDCS?" Sam and Ollie nodded. "Teenage superheroes. Love to see it. Okay, I will give you both of my personal phone number. If you need anything related to superhero stuff just text me. And I will also give you both my email." Pauline flipped to a blank page and wrote down her phone number and her email on two pieces of paper. She ripped them out of the notebook and handed them to Sam and Ollie. "And with that, I think we are done here." She got up from her chair and led Ollie and Sam to the door. "Get home safe." She said. Ollie and Sam nodded and exited her office. They kept walking to the elevator, waving to Isabelle as they walked by her. Once to the elevator, they got inside and hit the lobby button. The elevator doors closed with ease and the elevator began to go down.
"What the fuck just happened?!" Sam exclaimed, with excitement but with weariness.
"I don't know." Ollie said. Sam grabbed Ollie by his shoulders.
"Ollie, we just got government jobs as superheroes! This is our job now!"
"I didn't think it would come to this." Ollie said with no emotion. He was stunned by what Pauline said about the cops shooting at them if they didn't take the deal. The elevator made it to the lobby and the doors opened. The two exited City Hall to be greeted by now cold and crispy air. Sam grabbed her shoulders as she found out the armor wasn't cold proof. Luckily, Apollo was still in the limo. The two heroes quickly got inside. Apollo cranked on the heat for them.
"You can just bring us back to main street." Sam said. The limo engine was then cranked and the car headed back for mainstreet.
Isabelle entered into Pauline's office to find Pauline with her feet on her desk, her hands behind her head and a cigar in her mouth freshly lit.
"Isabelle my dear, we have just employed not one but two superheroes." Pauline said, confidence booming from her voice. Isabelle jumped up and down and clapped her hands cheering. "This is a big day for us. So I want you to take the rest of tomorrow off to enjoy yourself."
"You mean it ma'am?" Isabelle asked.
"I'm serious! You deserve it." Pauline reassured. Isabelle smiled. "Now get out of here. I'll be out when I finish this cigar." Isabelle then exited the office and proceeded to leave the building. Pauline pulled out the cigar and blew a big cloud of smoke. "Pauline you bitch you have outdone yourself this time.