New York Rebellion

By: PrinceOfNewYork

Chapter One: Mr. Princess

Summary: When faced with power, the little people have been known to commonly back down. But when one person has an idea, and has the power to get everyone involved great things can happen. How will giants fair when the little people fight as one?

Disclaimer: A lot of these are original newsies, created by yours truly. However, several are from the movie as well. If you don't know which ones those are go watch the movie, or simply ask me.

A/N: This is the sequel to my first shot at a Newsie fic, but Prince is my main character, and my absolute favorite as well. Besides, I couldn't just end my first story where I did without having a sequel, that wouldn't be fair at all. So, thank you in advance to all who read this!

I did borrow the character of Collin "Red" Russiani from a fellow author of mine: AmbrLupin who has an account on this site under that name. So, if you're interested in this character go to her for info, and thanks to her for loaning him to me!

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What a wonder it was to be a newsie in 1899…

Strike. The word that would define the life of any newsie in the mid summer of 1899. The word that would pull them all together to hopefully beat down the most powerful man in New York. The word that gave Avalanche and Prince a reason to go see some old friends.

Prince was a girl known to most as a boy named Mark Andrew Saunders, and known to few as Mary Ann Snyder. She ran away from her home and her father when she was 13, and she was now 16. The current co-leader of Queens was nothing more than a runaway Princess turned tomboy. Avalanche, or Alex, the current Queens leader and Prince's close friend was the only one who knew who she truly was, at this point in time. All of the Queens newsies kept the secret of her being a girl, and not one adult in New York, or any newsie in any other borough, suspected a thing.

Crossing the line from Queens to Brooklyn always brought back memories for Prince. The Brooklyn newsies had been the ones to find her. It had been the Spot Conlon who had given her directions to Queens. Of course, at the time he wasn't the Spot Conlon. At that time he had been known as Spot, and was nearly the son of the Red Russiani, the man who taught Spot everything, but left New York a couple of years ago, and so far none of the newsies know what became of him, or if they do, they keep it to themselves.

Prince and Avalanche headed towards the Brooklyn docks, since it was summer it was the common place to find boy newsies trying to cool down. And, as it turns out the Queens newsies were not the only ones wary of the strike.

Despite the fact that Harlem was a small part of Manhattan, a few of them were coming to hear if Spot had heard anything about it, and what action he was going to take.

"Heya!" Avalanche yelled to the two Harlem boys. They jumped hearing his exclamation… after all, this was the boy who could cause an avalanche if he lived in the mountains. "Rush!" A blonde blue eyed, rather strong boy, almost 16 waved back with a stunning smile. A slightly smaller boy with dark hair but bright shining green eyes waved as well. The boys quickened their steps and walked towards Avalanche and Prince. As the four newsies talked they continued towards the Docks.

"What are youse two doin' out heah?" Rush, the sort of suburb leader of Harlem, asked.

"Come ta have a woid wit' our deah Spot Conlon," Avalanche replied with a smirk. "How are thin's in Harlem?"

The dark haired boy spoke up. "Their goin' pretty good. Except for the whole strike thing." This boy spoke very fast and appeared to never run out of energy, or breath. "But we hear it was all Cowboy Jack's idea. You guys know Jack. The Manhattan leader, who wears the bandana, and the cowboy hat?-"

"Cricket..."

"But of course ya know who Jack is. But apparently this whole strike thing was his idea.-"

"Cricket…"

"But that's just what those boys from Manhattan said when they came to tell us about the strike. For all we know hmm hmmnmhnmn mhhhmnnmhn… Hmm!"

"Cricket… my hand is over your mouth for a reason. Shove it." At the command of his leader the boy called Cricket promptly shut up. When Rush was certain he had stopped talking he slowly took his hand away from the younger boy's mouth.

"Anyway…" Avalanche said to break the silence. "Queens is doin' okay too."

"Ida thought you'd be gone by now an' Prince heah was gonna take ovah for ya."

"Still am," Prince said with conviction. She kept her tone low and her head high giving her the sound and appearance of a boy. "Soon as Avalanche leaves that is." By this time the four had reached the edge of the docks.

"Thought I'd stick around and see how this whole strike thing pans out. Soon as I'm gone though, Prince is in charge," Avalanche agreed with her.

Cricket smiled a bit, feeling in a teasing mood. "You excided? Huh, Mr. Princess?" he laughed a little at his new nick name for the co-leader.

Avalanche's smile faded as Rush glanced from Cricket to Prince. Apparently Cricket didn't know Prince well.

Prince laughed a little, boiling under the surface. She put an arm around Cricket's shoulders. "Here's a hint, for da future, dun call me a Princess."

Cricket laughed a little more, figuring it was okay, since Prince was laughing too. Avalanche opened his mouth to say something, but Prince held up a hand to stop him, without even looking at him, and shook her head. She could handle this, but it wasn't her that Avalanche had been worried about.

"Why not? Princess?" he laughed harder still. Cricket's problem was he never knew when to shut up.

She shrugged the smile on her face getting scarier by the second, but she laughed again, none the less. "Just… don't do it!"

"Oh, come on, dere's gotta be a reason!" he said with a smile.

"Shoah dere is!" she said as she turned him around, arm still over his shoulders. Avalanche and Rush kept their mouths closed as they watched Prince escort Cricket to his doom, but with a smile on her face. "Dere is a whole long reason why I dun like bein' called a Princess." Cricket's eyes were on her the whole time curious; even though he was only a few months younger than Prince he had just pushed her too far. "Now I could go inta detail, an' a huge long story about exactly why it bugs me, ta be called a-"

"Princess?" Cricket said laughing yet again. This being the third time in a few minutes he'd called her this. "So, why duncha?"

"B'cause frankly, it ain't noneya business," she put her other hand on his shoulder and stood him directly in front of her (Cricket never was too bright), "an' b'sides, den I couldn't do dis!" With that she let her right hook fly, colliding with his left eye and sending him flying backwards off the docks, and into the cold water in the harbor.

Avalanche and Rush ran over to see the damage. They saw Cricket disappear below the surface of the water, and reemerge coughing and sputtering for air. One look at him and the two leaders burst out laughing. He was going to have a pitch black eye come about an hour from now.

Prince looked down at the boy a small satisfied smile on her face. "In short NO ONE calls me a Princess."

Cricket coughed and nodded. "Okay! Okay! I get it!" he said as he started making his way for the ladder. Prince turned away from him… she wasn't going to help him after this ordeal, and if she was going to face Spot with a cool head she'd have to go calm down. She walked away from the edge of the dock and leaned against a crate.

She never really was one for confrontation, and to be honest, she didn't like fighting much. She only did it to keep a reputation, and when someone called her a Princess, other than that, she was a caring person, who wanted to avoid hurting anyone, especially when they didn't deserve it.

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"I was wondering, um… why do you call me a Princess?"

"Simple," her mother said with her beautiful smile, "Because you are one."

"But I'm not," she explained. "Papa's not a King; you aren't a Queen, so how could I be a Princess?"

"Darling, every girl is a Princess."

"What if I don't want to be a Princess anymore?"

Amanda was slightly shocked by this question, and nearly caught off guard. She regained her composure quickly and countered, "But… why don't you want to be a Princess?"

"It's not so much that, it simply seems childish. I'm a bit old for such things."

Her mother had to chuckle at her daughters serious face. "But Princess, you're only twelve!"

"I know," the young Princess said. She didn't see what was so funny. "I just want to be called something different, that's all. My friends at school call me Mary, or Mary Ann. Why don't you ever call my by the name you gave me?"

To be honest, Amanda had never realized she only called her daughter a Princess. "I suppose you have always been a Princess in my eyes."

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"I'm… Mary… Mary Ann." She didn't dare say her last name to anyone.

"And… are you sleeping on the streets because ya ain't got a home, or because ya want to?"

"I… don't have a home," she said, which was, in short, a lie, and she was rather new to the art of lying, so it was strange to her. That and she wasn't very good at it.

"Sure kid," he said and started to walk away.

"Hey wait!" she called after him. He stopped and looked over his shoulder at her. "Who are you?"

"Name's Collin Russiani, friends call me Red. I'm the leader of the Brooklyn newsies."

"You… I mean, I… I'm in Brooklyn?" Collin Russiani? THE Collin Russiani, the one her father had told her about? This was him? She was in almost sheer awe in his presence. A real live newsie right in front of her! She'd never experienced that before. They had always been like fairy tales to her, and here was one of the most famous ones talking to her!

"Yeah…" he said to her as if she were an alien. "You're in Brooklyn." He completely turned to face her then. "You lost or somethin'?"

"Well in a way," she said.

He rolled his eyes a bit. "Either ya lost or ya ain't."

"I am!" she said. "I'm lost."

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"So, I suppose you'll wanna meet Avalanche now huh?" he asked with a sigh.

Mary Ann stopped eating suddenly and looked at him nodding. "Please," she said.

"Alright, let me go get 'im." Mary Ann watched the boy closed as he stood up and walked out of the room. Then turned right back around and walked back in. "Name's Alex Johnson, but most call me Avalanche, pleased to meet ya," he said spitting in his hand and offering it to her.

She sat dumbfounded. He'd been with her this whole time, and she hadn't even known it was him. Not only that, but it was another one of the newsies that her father had told her about, another one of the famous names in newsies. Avalanche laughed at the look on her face, and wiped the spit on his leg. "Sorry I didn't tell ya, but I was having too much fun. B'sides, I wasn't so sure dat you woulda come with me if ya'd known who I was. So I figured I'd play it safe."

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"Hi, my name is-"

"Lower."

"What?" she asked.

"You're gonna hafta talk with a deeper voice if anyone's gonna think dat you're a boy."

Prince cleared her throat and tried again. "Hi, my name-"

"Not that low!"

"Wull ya said-"

"You ain't a freakin' 40 year old Prince! And… nice accent," he added.

"Thanks, I've been working on it, and I really think I'm-"

"Just go back ta tryin' ta get the tone right," he said shaking his head.

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Also, there is something here that I think you should know about. Your father doesn't believe that you ran away. I know, it's rather strange, but it's true. It seems that the same week that you ran away a boy broke out of that awful place that your father sends children, the refuge. His name is Francis Sullivan. Mr. Snyder comes every weekend with reports saying how he chased the boy down this street, or he nearly caught him, but the boy seems to keep slipping through his fingers, and to be honest, I'm quite glad to hear it. Your father apparently thinks this Francis Sullivan boy is mad at him for putting Derek Sullivan, his father in jail, and for putting Francis in the refuge. So, that Francis boy broke out and kidnapped you to get his revenge. We all know that is not the case, but we couldn't say a word to your father about it with out it being a rather difficult situation. Please, Miss Snyder, if you know this boy, or his whereabouts you should tell him as soon as possible.

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Avalanched sighed. "Looks like the 'right time' came sooner than I had thought… I should explain now then?"

"Unless you wanna stop breathin' for an hour or so… I would recommend it."

He smiled at the girl. Two years ago she never would have said such a thing. Now here she was threatening his life. He was both proud… and a little scared by that. He slowed his pace so that he and Prince were in the back of the group.

"I discussed it with the oddah leadahs, and dey all agree… I'se gettin' a bit old ta be a newsie."

"Dat can happen when ya toin about… 19, like youse are."

"I'm 20… Prince." She appeared a little shocked at this news. When had he stopped bein' a teenager? Suddenly he appeared like an adult to her, and she had never really trusted adults… except for this one. "Prince my… sellin' schemes, and how ta improve the truth… heck. I taught you everythin' you know! But… not everytin' I know," he said with a wink.

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"PRINCE!" She jumped as she heard her name and looked over to see Avalanche waving her over. Cricket was out of the water, shivering and soaked, but he'd dry quickly in this warm weather. "Come on!"

Prince nodded a little and ran over to the three boys. Now was not the time for her to be thinking about the past, when there was so much going on in the present. She figured what Rush and Cricket said was true, about the strike being Jack's idea. But if that was true, then it was possible that he'd be in charge and responsible for many things that were going to happen during this strike, which could make him a fairly well known person. She just hoped he kept himself hidden enough to stay away from her father.

Prince slowed her steps as she reached Cricket. "Hey, wanted to apologize for hittin' ya."

"He desoived it," Rush said at which he and Avalanche laughed and Prince did too a little.

"Maybe, but still… just dun forget… I'm Prince."

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And... TA-DA! Chapter one of New York Rebellion also known as NYR2. I do hope you've enjoyed the first chapter... and I will continue to post new chapters every Monday and Friday. However, this Friday is an exception. So you'll be gettin' chapter 2 this month on Wednesday because I'm going to be gone over the weekend, however, after that the schedule should stay consistant. I'll try to warn you ahead of time if I post earlier or later. For now PLEASE review. I do apologize that it took me so long to get everything up, but now that I've started it'll be a while before I stop. Enjoy, and I'd love a review if ya have the time. Feed back, good or bad, is ALWAYS appreciated. Thanks, and see ya on Wednesday!