This was a really hard chapter for me to write and I hope you enjoy it. Shout out to Biankes, she is my #1 fan and has left a really sweet review on almost every single chapter. Thank you so much Biankes, you make my day!

Everyone began cheering and clapping as Jack jumped down from the bench and strolled into the building with Crutchie, Emma, Davey, and Les walking with him. Weasel was standing at the desk with the Delanceys to his left. "Weasel!" Jack declared. "Until Mr. Pulitzer lowers da prices back to what dey were, we is goin' on strike!" The other newsies joined in, "Yeah!" they shouted.

Oscar stepped forward and Crutchie stepped in front of Emma shielding her from whatever was to come. "You boys really dink dat Mr. Pulitzer is gonna listen to a bunch of alley rats?" he sneered. "Nobody asked you Oscar da Grouch!" yelled Race. Emma let out a giggle and Oscar turned to look at her with a death glare. Emma winced and Oscar turned a walked back over to Morris behind the counter.

Jack stepped forward to talk to Weasel and the other newsies started anxiously chatting with one another. Crutchie stepped back to where he had been and held Emma's hand. "Do you think we'll win?" she asked him. Crutchie smiled, "Of course we'll win!" he said, forever the optimist. "We's got Jack!"

They continued talking and Crutchie was still watching her uncles out of the corner of his eye. He put his hand on Emma's shoulder and pointed to the doors of the building. "Look." He said. Her uncles had smug looks on their faces and were leaving the distribution center.

"Huh." Said Emma with a confused look on her face. "I wonder where they're going." They turned back around and saw Jack walking over to them. "So?" said Emma. "How'd it go?" Jack shrugged. "I'se don't really know he said taking off his gray newsboy cap and twisting it in his hands. "I told him our reasons and ours conditions too."

He looked around. "But hey um, where'd your uncles go?" he asked. Crutchie answered. "We don't know. They just walked out of da buildin." Minutes went by and still, nothing happened. Weasel, who had been sitting behind his desk had disappeared into one of the back rooms, leaving the newspapers just lying on the table and in the wagon.

It wasn't before long that the boys got their hands on the papers and started ripping them apart and throwing them all over the floor. Everyone was laughing and making a mess of things when the huge oak doors slammed open and everyone turned to look. When they saw who it was they went silent. In the doorway were a pack of men, in the newspapers when they talked about the trolley strike, they talked about this group of men who were known as strikebreakers, men who used violence to get what they wanted. And who was in front of them as their ringleaders? None other than her uncles.

"No, please no." Emma thought anxiously. "Not strikebreakers and my uncles! They'll tear us to shreds." "It's the Bulls!" one of the boys shouted. Before anyone could say another word, the strikebreakers were advancing. "Newsies!" Jack yelled. "Get 'em!" Then pure chaos broke through.

There was fighting everywhere, boys on men; men on boys. Emma whirled around to look at Crutchie who was helping a smaller boy named Buttons. Crutchie turned around to face her but before he could say anything, a strikebreaker rammed into him, knocking him to the floor.

"Crutchie!" she cried as she tried to make her way through the crowd to help him. The two of them, Crutchie and the strikebreaker, were wrestling together on the ground and the man was on top of him. Both were throwing punches and Crutchie was trying to get the man off of him when a whistle blew and everyone froze.

She looked around frantically and saw Jack whose face was filled with terror, as if he was trapped in a nightmare, and he was. Jack was looking at the person who blew the whistle. "Snyder!" Jack shouted. The chaos quickly resumed and one moment Emma was just standing there and the next, she was pinned against the wall.

Her attacker smelled strongly like whiskey and had both of her hands in one of his hands above her head. She looked down at the ground and saw a pair of new black shoes. When Emma looked up at her attacker's face she gasped and tried to wriggle free. It was Snyder.

She desperately tried to break away but to no avail, he was too strong and her head hurt badly from having been slammed against the wall which was making her feel faint. He had his other grimy hand on her thigh and he began to speak in an oily voice, "Hey sweetheart," he whispered in her ear. "Why not before you go the refuge we have a little fun?" Emma cried out and desperately tried to break free of his iron hold.

He leaned in closer but before anything could happen, there was a blur and Snyder was knocked to the ground, causing him to release her. Her rescuer stood up and grabbed her hand pulling her away. It was Jack.

They stopped and Jack put his hands on her face. She closed her eyes for a second and she felt herself slipping out of consciousness, but Jack's strong hands caught her before she hit the ground. "Emma!" he yelled at her as he tried to shake her back into reality. "Emma please!" he cried. "You's gonna be ok!" Emma nodded and tried to shake off the pain in her head, "Jack," she mumbled. "Jack I'm fine. Go, go help the other boys." Jack leaned her against the wall. "Emma, stay right heres." He said before racing off to go help somebody.

"I wonder how Crutchie is—''she thought. "Crutchie. Where's Crutchie?" she stood up shakily and looked around. There he was! Crutchie was on the floor wrestling with another man. She began to run over too help him. As she got closer she saw how bad of a condition he was in. He was covered in bruises and he had a long gash one his arm. His face was a mess with a black eye and a bloody nose.

"Crutchie!" she screamed. He turned his head and looked over at her, so did his assailant. Who she saw made her blood boil, it was Morris. He gave her a wicked grin and time seemed to slow as he punched Crutchie across the face. "No!" she cried and slammed into Morris knocking him to the ground she felt another pair of hands on her arms as a strikebreaker pulled her away from both Morris and Crutchie.

"Let go of me!" she screeched as he began dragging her away. Oscar walked over and helped Morris up off the ground, Emma's had collided with his nose and there was blood all over his face. Crutchie reached for his crutch and tried to pull himself up but Oscar kicked him down so that he was lying on his stomach, and his crutch slid out of reach and right in front of a pair of new black shoes. Snyder.

He bent down and picked up the crutch and walked over to the boy on the ground. He made a gesture that looked like he was going to give the crutch back to him but instead, brought it down across his back.

"No!" Emma screamed as she struggled to break free from her captor. "Let him go!" Despite Crutchie's moans and laments, Snyder continued to bring the crutch down over his back again and again. He rolled onto his stomach and tried to use his arms and his good leg to block the crutch from his body. Emma kicked the strikebreaker holding her in the shins and he loosened his grip on her making it able for her to escape his grasp.

She jumped in front of Crutchie, trying to block him from Snyder, and the crutch made contact with her shoulder. But instead of falling down she stood strong even though her head was killing her. "Emma?" Crutchie groaned groggily. "Emma get out of here. Please Em, I'm fine." She knew that this was a lie and that it was killing him to have her stand there and take the blows but she didn't budge. Snyder grinned and brought the crutch down again trying to get her to fall down and it hit her other shoulder.

Snyder finally grew tired of this and gave her a hard shove to the ground making her head hit the tile floor. He hit her once, twice across her back and she saw Crutchie try to get up and help her but Oscar grabbed his arms restraining him. "Emma, no!" he cried fighting against her uncle. "Let her go!" Snyder hit her one more time across her upper back and stopped. Emma saw out of the corner of her eye, the crutch fall to the floor.

Oscar let go of Crutchie and he crawled over next to her. Emma could see tears on his face and he was trying to tell her something but she couldn't hear him, her head hurt too much. "Crutchie," she mumbled. "I love you and I'm sorry." She began to feel herself slipping into unconsciousness and she felt a pair of hands on her legs dragging her away. Crutchie tried to crawl after her but someone grabbed his leg as well and was pulling him in the opposite direction.

Emma could faintly hear Crutchie screaming something but she couldn't tell what he was saying. Then, her world went black.