A/N: I do not own any of the Newsies that are in the Disney film. All of the main burglars own themselves!
*Stress' POV*
The bulls called us The Kings, on account that we were the best in New York. We were always headlining one paper or another. If I remember correctly, there was Shadow, Scale, Keys, Switch, Swiftfingers, Joker and me of course, Stress. And Kitty. No matter how hard you tried, you just couldn't forget Kitty Voleur. Sure, there were more of us, but we were the pick of the crop. Those weren't real names, just the names we went by so that the bulls couldn't catch us. It was the spring of 1900 that I think the last time all of us were together. We were about to pull off the biggest heist in our lives…
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*Note: This is NOT in Stress' point of view*
I lifted the glass case and looked at the items inside for a second. Inside, were six, large diamond rings staring back at me.
"Hope they won't miss these much." I said, carefully lifting them out of the case and putting them inside the secret compartment in my hat. Stress' low whistle pierced the silent room, it was her signal to let us know that someone was coming. "Emu. Emu, come one, we gotta go." I whispered and we tiptoed away towards the door where there was a rope hanging down. We slide down the brown, tangled mess and ran the rest of the way to Downing Street.
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"What did you want, chief?" I asked, stepping into the Jeff Comut's office. Jeff, or the Chief as we called him, was the ringleader of the Kings, he organized everything and then sent us out to do the dirty work. No one complained because he had given us all a roof over our heads and food to eat everyday; it was a lot better from where we first came from. The Chief threw today's edition of the New York World on his desk and continued looking out of his window. I looked at it curiously and read the headline. THE KINGS STRIKE AGAIN! it read.
"We made the front page this time." I remarked, smiling triumphantly.
"You, Emu and Stress did extremely well. Flip to the social section, page 3." I did as he directed and scanned the page.
"Mr. Clayton Cook, a prominent man in the diamond industry of New York, will be holding a private party in which he is expected to unveil his new diamond museum. He is rumored to show the Red Diamond, the world's biggest ruby, that night. The party is invitation only." I read. "The Red Diamond?" I asked, confused but intrigued.
"It is one of the biggest known and uncovered rubies in the world. I have found out from my sources that it will be there. And we are going to…"
"Steal it." I interrupted.
"Exactly. But first, some background information. Clayton Cook used to be a Newsie at the Manhattan Newsboys Lodging House. He still has friends there and those will be the people that he will use for his security guards that night." The Chief said.
"And you want us to?" I asked, leaning in closer to him for instructions.
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"You have been called here because you are one of the eight best thieves in the Kings." I said, looking around at the seven other people gathered around the oak table.
"This will be our trickiest heist yet. It will take a long time gathering information and planning it. Does anyone not want to be a part of it?" No one answered so I took that as a no. "We will be robbing Mr. Clayton Cook, a prominent member of the diamond industry, at the opening of his diamond museum, named Sparkles. This won't be any old diamond we'll take, we are going to steal the biggest ruby known in the world, the Red Diamond."
"Clayton Cook used to be a Newsie, and still has friends in the Manhattan and Brooklyn Newsboys Lodging Houses. Those are whom he's going to be using as his guards that night. Our job, to get close to them and make sure that we are brought to the opening of Sparkles that night. We already have positioned some people in Brooklyn. The eight of us will be going to Manhattan, the most important place." I passed around two pictures to the each of them. "The first picture is of Mr. Cook, memorize it and don't forget it. The second picture is the most important Newsboy we have to know, he was like Mr. Cook's little brother when he was at the Lodging House. Therefore, he will be the one that Mr. Cook trusts most. Understand?" Everyone nodded. "Good. Now to fit in with the Newsboys, we will have to change some things about us, like our names and clothing. You need to pick a nickname for yourself, it can be anyone that you choose. We will be leaving tomorrow night. We have two weeks from tomorrow night to get close to the Newsies and get invited to Sparkles' opening night. Oh, one other thing before I forget." I said, before leaving. "This is strictly confidential. Anyone caught talking about this outside of these eight people will be killed."