As always the standard disclaimer applies: I do not own the Happy Tree Friends; they are the property of Mondo Media. I own only my own characters and this story.

Now here's chapter 67:

67 – POWER OF EMERGENCY

Dunster was taken back into custody as soon as some security people arrived to take him off of Anna Ride's hands. To the surprise of everyone he didn't mind at all. When he was interrogated further it came out that he and Zarkwon Du weren't actually friends; he was more like Zarkwon Du's "muscle" and had been treated largely as if he couldn't think for himself. He was expected to obey without question whatever he was told to do. That would have been okay if that only meant obeying military orders in a basic command structure but Zarkwon Du and, it turned out, Durago had gone further than that and treated him more like their personal servant even in matters of housekeeping and hygiene, going so far as to make him massage their feet whenever they were so inclined.

Now that he was free of both his immediate superiors Dunster didn't seem to know what to do with himself. It was because of this that both of the Rides seemed to have hope that maybe he could be rehabilitated and eventually absorbed into the city. Mayor King, however, wasn't so sure and was quite firm about it.

"Like it or not" she said to both of the Rides (Tony had been released from the hospital shortly after the incident with Zarkwon Du had ended and he was recovering well), "he is a high-ranking Marauder. Even if we've gotten him away from them, even if he says he's glad about that, he's got quite a record of his own and that can't be just washed away."

"Quite so" said Tony Ride, "we'll keep an eye on him."

With the crisis over Sniffles was able to return to Metramegopolis with his prototype teleporters. Cuddles came back with him and resumed his studies of the city's flying systems, which went smoothly enough. However his experience of being unceremoniously shipped home earlier left him a good deal more guarded than before, especially when Barry was around (even with Barry's apology), even though he knew that the Mole and Handy had really been behind things. Everything seemed to be calming down and returning to normal.

On the surface things were fine again. Underneath things weren't quite so calm. Mayor King was the person who was most deeply affected by the recent crisis even though everyone agreed that she had handled herself pretty well when she faced down Zarkwon Du. Nevertheless, even though she kept a stoic face in public, in private she worried much more than she let on about the safety of the city.

Mayor King faced the dilemma that all leaders face sooner or later. A story well known to all people in the city illustrated it. According to the legend, long ago during the Before Times there had been a great ruler of a mighty nation. He had summed up the leader's dilemma perfectly when, in order to show everyone where final responsibility and authority rested he had put a little sign on his desk that said "the buck stops here." Everyone understood what that meant: no matter how many people may be part of a group, company, city, country, and so on, no matter how many different hands work on a project, in the end the person who is in charge and has the final say is always responsible for what happens. Someone once said that the mark of a great leader wasn't that people said about him afterwards "look at all the things he did," but instead was "look at all of the things WE did while he/she was in charge." The stressing of the group effort is important for morale but at the end of the day someone always has to take final credit, or blame. If a nation has a great triumph then whoever is leader at the time will be remembered for that triumph even if he or she was only peripherally involved. On the other hand if a huge disaster strikes a community then whoever is in charge at that moment is almost always blamed for it afterwards unless he's able to effectively counter the disaster at once. More than one leader has been turned out of office by the people when they were perceived as not being able to deal with a crisis.

Mayor King was very much aware of all of this. She knew well how quickly she would have been blamed if the city had been attacked when it was unprepared, or if the attempted sabotage of the flight systems had succeeded (assuming anyone had survived that), or if the prison breakout had been successful. Those things hadn't happened but with each incident it seemed more and more to her that perhaps security in the city was not good enough, and her own power to act quickly and effectively was too limited. The more she brooded on this the more it seemed to her that something would have to be done about it. Perhaps it was time to invoke the Power of Emergency clause in the city Constitution. But that was an extreme step and she knew she'd have to be very careful how she proceeded with it.

She first raised the possibility during a weekly private meeting that she had with the three city community leaders, Dane, Toothy, and Robot.

"No!" declared Toothy forcefully even before Mayor King had finished what she was saying, "I will not agree!"

"I will also oppose this" said Dane, "you're asking for unlimited and unchecked power. In essence you'd become a dictator, unaccountable to anyone."

"You think I would abuse my position?" asked Mayor King angrily, "I thought you knew me better than that. Despite my name I'm not asking to be a monarch."

"Why do you ask for this now?" asked Dane, "we're not facing any threats at the moment; we've managed to keep things under control."

"But for how long?" pushed the mayor, "it's true we've taken care of these last few incidents but we've also been lucky, especially with the attempted sabotage of the flight systems. If Frik and Frak hadn't been caught as soon as they arrived at the city who knows how things might have gone?"

"But they were caught" said Toothy, "and even if they hadn't been the saboteurs still wouldn't have been able to bring down the city."

"And what about this last incident?" said Mayor King, "we got lucky there too because Anna Ride could defend herself."

"We weren't just lucky" said Dane, "our security maintained the prison riot. There wasn't a mass breakout from the POW camp. Did the confrontation with Zarkwon Du worry you? Under the circumstances you did what you had to do and you stood up to him well."

"It shouldn't have come to that" said the mayor, "it just seems that we're lax somehow and that our security needs to be better."

"If you did invoke the power, what would you do with it?" asked Toothy.

"I'd tighten our security" said the mayor.

"But what can you do with that extra power that you can't do now?" asked Dane, "the police, the military, and the intelligence service are already on high alert."

"I could stop threats before they materialize" said the mayor.

"How will you do that if you don't know what they are?" countered Dane, "will you arrest people out of hand just because you think that maybe they might be planning something? Will you use the intelligence department to start spying on normal citizens? Will we all be encouraged to spy on our neighbors and report on them? How will you trust a hearsay complaint? It doesn't seem like this is doing very much except making everyone extra paranoid."

The mayor was silent.

"I would suggest that you think long and hard about this" continued Dane, "because you won't improve city security by invoking the Power of Emergency and seizing absolute control unless you have a damn good reason that everyone in the city can agree with. Otherwise you'll only stir up a lot of trouble."

"Yes" said Toothy, "morale will go out the window. Maybe you'll convince a lot of the humans, but without a clear overpowering emergency you'll never get the animals on your side. Will you divide us like that?"

"And what about the A.I.s?" said Dane turning to Robot, "how will they react?"

"The A.I.s will be against you" said Robot speaking for the first time, "as things stand right now the decision will seem entirely based on emotion without supporting fact. There will not seem to be any logical reason for it. Power of Emergency was created to deal quickly with an immediate pressing crisis. Right now there is no obvious crisis, therefore there is no logical reason to invoke it."

"So you are all against me" said the Mayor grimly.

"Don't give me this 'either you're with me or you're against me' crap" said Dane starting to become angry himself, "we're just as concerned with the safety of this city as you are, but we will not hand over absolute authority to you – not like this. The situation simply doesn't warrant it."

"By the time there is a real threat it may well be too late" said the mayor.

"'May be,' 'might be,' and 'could be' are not enough reason for such a drastic step" said Toothy, "you have to have a real 'is' or a definite 'will be' first."

"And then?" said the mayor.

"If a real emergency of that magnitude arose" said Robot, "then it would be logical for you to count on our support if you needed to invoke Power of Emergency." Toothy nodded his agreement, as did Dane.

"Very well" said the mayor with resignation, "it seems I'm overruled. I hope you three know what you're doing."

"Diana, don't press this any further" said Dane, "you've done a great job since you've been in office; you saw us through the last war – without invoking Power of Emergency I might add – and you've overseen our current flight. Don't tarnish your legacy in this way. You're better than that. I know you're worried about the city, we all are, but turning yourself into a dictator is not the answer. Don't go looking for disasters before they happen."

Mayor King bowed her head in acceptance of what her colleagues had said.

"Very well" she said, "I withdraw my position – for now."

(To Be Continued)

A/N - This chapter concludes the current arc of the story which I called the "Zarkwon Du Arc." A new section of the story will begin in the next chapter. Until then thanks for reading and please leave me a note or two.

Cheers!