Introducing: Newsies! But with superpowers! Posting this here for National Superhero Day. We'll see when the first actual oneshot is posted. This chapter here is just to teach you what powers the newsies have.
I did it in an interesting way, by making it be this:
The NYCCSAIC.
Crucial and confidential report.
12/11/2005
"The Apprehensive Case of the 23 Teenagers"
We here at the New York City Confidential Supernatural Activity Invesitgation Centre have been tracking these teenagers down for a while now, and today we have finally gathered enough information to make this report to the officials in Washington DC. Whoever this file is passed to needs to go The Capital Grill in DC. Ask for "Jude". If all of our arrangements have worked out, you should be brought into the back room. There you will meet a man, to whom you shall read the following report.
These 23 teenagers, one in Brooklyn, and the other 22 in Manhattan are not like the crowd around them. They have abilities far beyond the ordinary. Supernatural ones. This would be nothing but a curious case we would attempt to investigate further in if it wasn't for the teenagers not having full control of their abilities. From our observations on the streets, and at one particular deli, we've seen many mishaps. They've accidentally used their abilities without meaning to, as well as having done something wrong while attempting to use them.
We've done some investigating, and found out who these teenagers are.
The oldest of the 23 is one Katherine Pulitzer, who goes under the professional name "Katherine Plumber". She's 18, and lives in an apartment in Manhattan. Our sources tell us she's the daughter of the newspaper owner Joseph Pulitzer, who owns The World. She's quite clearly in a relationship with the leader of the Manhattan group, although we're not sure of how much of a part of the actual group she is.
Katherine is a curious case. We're not 100% sure what she can do, but we believe she can tell the future. We've read some of her articles, and some of the events she speaks of in them appear to have happened several hours after she wrote the report. We've also caught her multiple times telling one of the boys in the group that something with what they're about to do will go wrong, and they almost always trust her.
We haven't had the fortune, or misfortune, of seeing her being wrong about something that is about to happen, so we're thinking that the contorl of the abilities they display may grow better with age.
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The second oldest is Sean Conlon. He's 18, and he is the only one from Brooklyn. From the looks of it, he's in a relationship with one of the boys from Manhattan. We could find no family. Only the fact that he lives at a lodging house in Brooklyn with a few other boys and girls. All of the others in the group call him "Spot".
This boy can stick to any surface. He can walk on walls, sit on the ceiling, and stand upright on a thing that is turned completely sideways. Gravity doesn't affect him when he chooses for it not to. We've assumed he can't walk in the air, as that is something he has not done. As long as he has something to fasten his feet on, he can walk on it.
A couple of times we have witnessed him loose his grip of the surface he's standing or sitting on, showing a small lack of control.
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Daniel Wilson, who goes by "Specs" is the third teenager. This boy turned 17 in January. Much like Sean Conlon, Daniel Wilson lives at a lodging house. Many of these teenagers live in the Manhattan Newsboys' Lodging House.
On multiple occasions, we have seen Daniel fly and levitate. He can completely let go of gravity of anything. He needs no surface to stand on.
Daniel can do controlled flying, where he can steer his body to go wherever he wants. A couple of our field agents have also seen him let go of gravity to simply float like it's zero gravity.
He has fallen out of this. He seems wiser than the majority of his friends, as he's never flown higher than a few feet of the ground. He's aware that he can lose control.
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There is one trio of siblings among the teenagers. Sarah Jacobs is the oldest one, at 17. These three siblings live with their parents in a medium-sized apartment.
Sarah doesn't tend to be present as much as the others in the group. Out of sheer luck, a staff member here at the NYCCSAIC spotted her with a few others girls in Central Park. From there we assumed that Sarah has many friends outside of the group of 23.
Sarah can conjure things out of thin air. She has shown obvious limitations the few times we've gotten to observe what she can do. She can not conjure food, drink or anything bigger than a normal dinner table.
We once confiscated a glass cup she conjured, and it disappeared about an hour after she made it. Her abilities have big limitations, but also extreme power.
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Jorgelino Josephino De La Guerra, known everywhere as JoJo, is also one of the six 17-year-olds. They recently moved into the Newsboys' Lodging House, but they're originally from Harlem. We had one of our agents, playing a simple, interested woman, speak to one of the nuns who raised JoJo, and the nun said she always found JoJo peculiar. The nun also mentioned how JoJo never showed any interest in participating in anything in the cathedral.
Most of the nuns seem unaware of JoJo's abilities, but from our observations of the cathedral, we've concluded that this is not because JoJo hid anything from them, but it's because they're generally absent for the children there.
JoJo very often displays their abilities of shapeshifting. We've seen no limit to what they can do as far as morphing their body goes. The only signs of limits are the things that are out of JoJo's control. They appear to be very poor at stopping their hair from changing colors randomly.
Their abilities do not stop at metamorphing. They can also transform into a select few animals, all household pets. Our field agents have seen JoJo turn into a gerbil, a hamster, a flightless budgerigar, a bunny, and a cat many many times. We have not seen JoJo turn into a dog. What we have seen is them acting uncomfortable around dogs on the street, so we think this is by choice.
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One Louis Balletti, also 17 is next on the list. The group calls him "Blink", which we assumed is because of his case of macular degeneration. He has a boyfriend in the group, and a foster family with whom he lives in the Lower East Side.
Many many times, he's said the phrase "Something tells me" followed by a command, and whoever he's told it to always does whatever he said. We've concluded that this is some kind of mind control. When using it on only one person, it always seems to work for him. He's tried doing it on multiple at once, but that's where he struggles. The fact that he has to say a phrase, and that his friends clearly know said phrase also creates road blocks for him.
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The boy who is the obvious leader of the pack, Jack Kelly, is next. Also 17, and also a resident at the Lodging House. He does not seem to have any mother, father or siblings, but he does seem to be very close with Medda Larkin of The Larkin Theater.
Jack very apparently has illusion casting abilities. He uses this ability constantly, most often to play tricks on his friends. What this power is is the ability to initiate mental hallucinations in people around him. He can make people see things that aren't really there, or that aren't actually happening.
One of our best field agents was at Jacobi's observing during one very eventful night. She reported Jack having supposedly made JoJo see lots of spiders on their arm, making the only girl in the group that was present think that she had finished her cheesecake, only so he could eat it, and also making a younger boy in the group see his friend fall out of his chair, even though said friend was perfectly balanced in it. Jack even tried to use his ability on our agent. She said that the only reason it failed was because he lost focus, and the deli owner he had made her see disappeared into thin air.
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A boy who they call "Mush", whose real name is Nicholas Myers is our next subject. He's the youngest 17-year-old, having had his birthday only a month ago. He's the boyfriend of Louis Balletti, and much like him, he lives with a foster family.
We think Nicholas can read minds. Our agents are very careful around him. His friends have told him many times to "Get out of their heads" after he's brought up something they just thought. It appears like Nicholas has a very easy time reading his friends' mind. It's with strangers he struggles to use his ability.
We believe he's gotten suspicious of one of our agents. He spotted Nicholas carefully eyeing him during one observing shift at Jacobi's Deli. We try not to have said agent be on duty when Nicholas is present.
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Sarah Jacobs' exactly one year younger brother David is the oldest 16-year-old.
It took us a while to figure out exactly what it was he could do, but with all of our research from observing the group and the individuals, we think he has information absorbency.
Multiple times, we've seen him hold his hand on something for five seconds, and then walk away, often times immediately beginning to speak of whatever said book was about. He's never brought up anything from the books more than 24 hours after touching it, so we think this is in no way permanent, and to fully learn it, he has to actually read the book.
His abilities look as though they work on gathering information about a person as well. The others rarely let him touch them, and we assume this is because they don't want David to learn everything about them for 24 hours.
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Thomas Harding, who's very close with David's little brother is the second oldest 16-year-old. We're also fairly certain he's dating Sarah Jacobs. We don't know much about Thomas' living situation, but he has talked about his mother and father, so we know they're alive.
Thomas' ability is phasing. He can walk through solid objects, either by making the object not be solid, or by making his own body not be solid. We're not quite sure about which one it is. All we know is that Thomas can walk through walls, stand in the middle of a table, and things alike that.
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The only girl who appears to be tight-knit into the group is Presley Jenkins, 16. We've tracked her parents and three brothers down to the Bronx, but Presley herself lives with a foster family in Manhattan. The group calls her "Smalls", and it is very obvious that she is in a relationship with one of the boys.
Presley is one of the ones who uses her power the most. She can teleport, and uses it regularly to move away from, or go to places. From what we've seen, we can conclude that she is one of the worst at controlling her power from appearing randomly. Several times we've seen her attempt to take a normal step, but instead teleport multiple feet forward.
We're not entirely certain about her teleporting range. When it's only about feet, she does it very effortlessly. An agent has seen her put in a lot more effort into teleporting right after saying that she was too tired to walk home, so she might be able to teleport far distances if she puts in more energy.
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Benjamin Davenport is 16, and has six siblings and two living parents, which is a thing not many people in this group appear to have. Benjamin also lives with his family, which is even rarer.
Benjamin speaks to everything living. On the streets, we've seen him talk to stray cats, dogs being taken on walks, and birds flying by. It is very apparent that the animals understand what he is saying. To us others, it sounds like English, but it must not to them.
JoJo and Benjamin often speak while JoJo's in one of their animal forms.
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Anthony Higgins has been mentioned in this report before, as he is the one we think Sean Conlon might be dating. Anthony is very affectionate with Sean, but Sean doesn't return a lot of it, at least in public. He has shown other signs of attraction towards Anthony.
Anthony is 16, which is the most common age in the group. His parents are both dead, and he lives at the Lodging House.
At first, we thought Anthony had all of the powers the others had. He's shown all of them, but we quickly realized he only showed the powers when the person with that power was present. From this we concluded that Anthony has mirroring abilities. Whoever is around him, he can mimic their powers. When he mirrors the powers, they seem to be pretty watered down. We've seen him conjure half a pencil (which disappeared after ten minutes) when Sarah was there, and attempt, but fail to use Louis' "Something tells me".
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Patrick Cortes is also 16. We're not really sure where he lives, where his parents are, or if he even has any. Some nights he spends at the Lodging House, but others we have no idea where he goes.
He has the ability of trajectory manipulation. Whatever he throws, he has complete control over in the air. He can make it take sharp turns, go in loops, and then hit whatever target he wants. Unfortunately, he has one of the worst controls over his abilities. He has about a 50% chance of hitting his target. His friend, conveniently nicknamed "Sniper" has better aim, but not the ability to completely control what he throws and shoots.
It's only the actual hitting of the stuff that Patrick struggles with. The flight of the thing he has spectacular control over.
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This friend of Patrick's, "Sniper", or Jeffrey Wah, is only eleven days younger, making him also be 16. He's the one who's obviously dating Presley Jenkins. With "obviously", we mean that the two never hesitate to kiss in public, and constantly touch each other.
Jeffrey's father is the relatively known laundromat owner Sam Wah, but we're not sure about the relationship between Jeffrey and his father. We have spotted bruises on Jeffrey's face and arms.
Jeffrey is telekinetic. He can move things with his mind. He doesn't have as sharp control as Patrick does with his trajectory manipulation, but he has a wider range of things he can do, as he doesn't have to throw the things he controls.
The problems we've seen Jeffrey face is the fact that he often accidentally knocks things around what he's controlling over. Our current field agent provided the example that he tried to pick up a crumpled up paper that Anthony failed to toss into the trash can. Jeffrey had the paper in control with his mind, but he knocked over the entire trash can in the process.
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Henry Butler is currently the youngest 16-year-old. We think he's the son of deceased former deli owner Jonathan Butler. We have not been able to find Henry's mother, and all we know is that Henry lives at the Lodging House.
It took us an extensive amount of time to figure out what Henry's ability was. We thought it could be some sort of teleportation, as he often disappeared right in front of our eyes, often along with other things.
It was this final discovery that led us to be able to write this report, because just yesterday we found out what he could do because of a fluke.
Presley Jenkins shouted at him "Don't you dare stop time!"
We listened in closely on the conversation following that, and found out that Henry can stop time for himself for durances up to ten minutes. We're gonna have to be careful around him too, making sure we don't have important documents open if not absolutely necessary.
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Albert DaSilva is a little more than a month away from turning 16, making him currently be the oldest 15-year-old. He's also a resident at the Lodging House, even though he has a father and two brothers.
Albert has super humand speed. He can do anything at a phenomenal speed, and it's one of the most chaotic things we have ever witnessed. He's constantly in motion somehow, and even his casual movements are a bit faster than the normal individual.
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Next up we have a pair of identical twins, who we after a long time learned to tell apart. Their powers are very similar, and their names are Isaac and Michael Stewart, Isaac being the older one. They're both 15, but turning 16 in late January. They live with their family.
Together they have complete element manipulation, but the four elements are split in two between them. Isaac controls water and air, and Michael controls fire and earth.
Isaac can bend and control any liquid. He tends to often lose control, and splash the water he's carrying everywhere. Air wise, he can create winds, and even small tornadoes out of dust and air.
Michael can do some basic landscaping. He can grow things, and lightly shape small pieces of ground. With fire, he can start them, put them out, and control fires and flames. He's very careful with this. He and the others often discuss what they call "the incident", which seems to have something to do with Michael and fire.
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Elmer Kasprzak is 15 like the twins, and has a family even bigger than Benjamin Davenport's, as he has nine siblings. His family is from Poland. Despite having such a big family, he doesn't live with them, but lives with many others at the Lodging House.
Elmer's ability is one of the more intriguing ones.
Elasticity. He can stretch his body to incredible, inhuman lengths. We haven't seen him reach his limit of stretching, but we do assume that he has one. We don't know what happens to his bones or intestants when he stretches out, but he's always back in an excellent condition when going back to normal.
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Charlie Morris is also 15, and appears to be Jack Kelly's favorite. The two act like brothers. Charlie's commonly called "Crutchie" among his friends, the reason for this being his leg, which we have found out is paralyzed because of polio.
He has the ability to manipulate light. He can bend it, make it go out, or make it shine brighter. His powers work with any light. Street lights, small lamps, and even rays of sunlight. Lately it's been looking like he's been trying out conjuring light from thin air, but he's only gotten small sparks so far.
He's not fully in control, which shows easily when he bends light. The others often stay out of his way when he's playing with light, because it happens often that the light goes right when he wanted it to go left.
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Romeo Sanchez is the only 14-year-old, having turned 14 only two days ago. He has parents he lives with, but we don't know anything about siblings.
Romeo can go invisible. We don't get the impression that he likes doing it. He appears to love being the center of attention, and being invisible doesn't really help him do that. Unfortunately for Romeo, he often accidentally fades out without even noticing it. When he does actually try, he often ends up being only semi-transparent.
Because he is the youngest teenager in the group, we think that's all because of control problems.
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The very youngest in the group is probably only there because of Sarah and David: his older siblings. Lesley is only ten, yet he is very good friends with many of the older ones, particularly Jack Kelly and Thomas Harding.
What Lesley can do is duplicate himself, and create multiple Lesleys. He had this in action when we first saw him, and at first we thought it was a set of triplets. Until two of them disappeared. If Lesley himself doesn't make the duplicates disappear, they go away on their own after fifteen minutes.
We don't know if he has a limit to how many he can make. The most copies we've seen at once is five.
This information is strictly confidential, and shall be kept between the NYCCSAIC and the WDCSAIC. If this file gets lost, the entire data program will be shut down immediately, and all our progress will be lost.
Don't lose this file.
If this is to be lost, and you are an individual who found this, we beg you to either turn it in to the police, throw it in the nearest trash can, or get rid of it in any way you can think of.
Do tell me what you thought of this in a review! I appreciate nothing more! (Unless you're a Pringle, then I appreciate both a reactions in the group chat as you read, and then a review after that).