'Sup, I'm back.

Review Responses:

AndrewKeenanBolgerFan: Thanks! From the first time I heard that line "My father's gonna kill me anyway", I got really concerned for that character, and then I learned more about Sniper... and now we have this. FINCHY NEEDS TO CALM DOWN. Everyone needs a chill pill, honestly. Particularly Blink. And then there's our Tommy Boy. (I too came into the fandom really late. I live on watching Newsies Live over and over 'cause I have no other way of seeing the show.)

JustVildaPotter: (Chapter 34) Sniper would've enjoyed slapping the Delanceys in the throat as well. Oh, gosh darn it! I missed that typo when I was editing! Thanks for pointing it out, I'll go back and fix it later. (Chapter 35) OH MY GOSH, THANK YOU! Thank you for enjoying my story that is barely holding onto its plot more than the actual Newsies storyline! That means so much!

Okay, on we go.

Chapter 36- Romeo

Saturday, September 18, 1999, 3:30 p.m.

Not to say that Romeo expected the newsie strike to go down like that musical about the French Revolution, but he had anticipated at least a little more excitement. There had been such a thing, for a moment, following an argument among about half of the group. After much arguing about who had sold out the newsies and who hadn't, Blink had punched Mush in the face. Romeo had hoped this would finally get some action started, but instead, Jack and Davey broke up the fight before it could start to get violent, or worse, entertaining. They had gathered the three- Sniper, Tommy Boy, and Blink- that Specs had quietly dubbed "scabs", and told them to stick around, but not talk to anyone. It hadn't been a friendly suggestion so much as a harsh order from Jack, so the trio was quick to obey. They went to sit on the steps in front of the school.

Since then, the entire courtyard had been full of awkward people not really in the mood to talk. Sadly, it seemed everyone was being a lot more cautious on this second day than they had been on the first; understandable due to half of their number getting threatened with suspension the day before. But, with the caution came a painfully dull continuation of the protest. Les had clearly shared Romeo's opinion on this, for he had tried to get people in the revolting spirit by ripping up some notebooks. Unfortunately, this had only lasted about five minutes, thanks to that kid's energy level. It had, at least, made Tommy Boy leave his place on the steps and join the crowd. Then again, Tommy Boy didn't really talk to anyone, so it wasn't like he was going to open his mouth and get everyone riled up. Boring. Where was the action today?

Other than the notebook ripping, the most exciting event of the afternoon had been the scab trio showing up late to the strike. And that hadn't been exciting so much as confusing. For one thing, Sniper and Finch were still in a fight. That changed nothing, except for the fact that their fight had become somehow even worse than it already was. It was unclear to Romeo why the pair of them wouldn't just make up already. There had been tension between the two of them since Finch had apparently kissed Sniper, though that had been days ago. Romeo supposed that was the norm when one best friend kissed another out of nowhere. Except, he had kissed Specs out of nowhere, and nothing like that had happened between them. They just hadn't yet discussed the incident. If Romeo was being fair in his comparison, there was the blatant fact that Specs had been okay with his kiss, while Sniper was anything but when it came to hers. So that was that.

The whole scab debacle had caused a little bit more drama: between Mush and Blink. But all that happened there was Mush getting punched in the face, and something with trust issues... by that point, Romeo, confused, had stopped paying attention. Instead, he'd considered Sniper's warning. She had explicitly told all the newsies that the Delancey brothers weren't actually gone, but every single one of them- including Sniper herself- had decided to ignore that information. Romeo had since realized it was best not to question this, and he, like the others, put the Delanceys out of his mind.

So the hour had dragged on without incident until, shock of all shocks- though it wasn't actually a surprise, considering- Weasel, Oscar, and Morris showed up, along with a dozen or so scary-looking grown men wielding assorted weapons.

The mood surrounding the courtyard changed lightning-fast the second this group of people arrived to break up the strike. One minute, things were calm; people milled around, a few of them chanting. Jack was making a big show of writing the word "STRIKE" in white chalk on the school wall. The next thing Romeo knew, the chanting stopped, Jack yelled "Get 'em!" and the crowd banded together to take down the obstacle.

Right away, Romeo realized that not having concerns about the Delanceys and their gang earlier on had been a bad move. Out of anyone in the gang, Oscar was by far the youngest and most inexperienced, meaning all the others were twice as big, twice as scary, and twice as powerful. Romeo knew from his first look at the goons that the newsies were going to be powerless against them.

But that didn't stop the rest of his fellow students. Jack charged head on into the fight, going straight for Oscar and Morris, who both looked more than pleased at the prospect of an unfair fight. Their hopes were quickly shattered by Mike and Ike; they came out of nowhere brandishing homemade signs, which they used to whack each of the brothers on the head as they shouted "Die!" It was a bit overdramatic of them, but their efforts were appreciated by Jack, as it granted him a reason to move away from the Delanceys and help in other areas of battle.

While the twins cornered the Delancey brothers, the other members of the gang spread themselves among the newsies. Two of them had ganged up on Mush, Blink, and Tommy Boy, but those three held their ground for a bit. But then, Blink and Tommy Boy came at the men with an unexpected strategy that it appeared Mush hadn't known about. As luck would have it, the strategy failed, and Mush was left to attempt to cover for his companions. Withing seconds, those three were overtaken by the gang members.

Across the courtyard, Albert was completely pummeling one of the men. Next to this, Race lay on the ground, so Albert had evidently come to aid his best friend. He looked to be on the winning end of the fight, which surprised Romeo. Unfortunately, Albert's lucky streak ended when another man snuck up behind him, threw him to the ground, and began hurting him more once he was down. At this point, Race was back on his feet. He managed to distract the two attackers for a moment, allowing Albert a chance to roll away before they turned him into pavement paste. Albert and Race would have been fine after that if the pair of them hadn't stopped to gloat about the way their trick had worked; a stupid, stupid mistake that resulted in them both being thrown to the concrete again.

Nearby, some primal best-friend instinct must have kicked in for Sniper and Finch. Despite the personal fight they were currently in, they were battling side by side, working in tandem to take down a guy while simultaneously watching each other's backs for any outside interference. And maybe it was the adrenaline, but from where Romeo was standing, each of them seemed okay with the other's presence again. That was, until Smalls made a running leap and landed on the back of the guy Finch and Sniper were fighting. Her sudden entrance completely threw off their dynamic. Sniper and Finch faltering made way for two more of the gang members to come at the three newsies. Needless to say, after that they were quickly encircled, with no chance of escape.

After winning against Ike and Mike, the Delancey brothers moved on to chasing after Sarah, Davey, and Les. Of the three siblings, Sarah was the only one who had even an inkling of how to fight, leaving her brothers to need rescue from Jack. Les, sure of himself as always, tried to jump up and smash Oscar and Morris' heads together, an attempt that quickly failed due to him being a child. Jack hauled the little boy away from the scene; he shoved Les into a large plastic cylinder- presumably a trash can- that stood by the school's front steps, instructing him to "Stay down!" before running off to help the other Jacobs siblings. Sarah was holding her own as well as any newsie. Davey, on the other hand, was completely overwhelmed until Jack came to help him, at which point he seemed to gain more confidence in his fighting skills.

In another part of the courtyard was the battle Romeo had run away from within the first five seconds of the riot: Specs and Katherine's. Currently, one of the gang members, not otherwise occupied, was trying to target Katherine. She kneed him in the groin and dashed away to help Specs take down Weasel. The gym teacher's authority was no match for the combined forces of the bespectacled boy and the student teacher of journalism. They were on the verge of getting the upper hand on Weasel when the man who had tried to attack Katherine came right at Specs. The two young people were actually less than skilled fighters; Weasel had been an easy opponent. The trained member of a gang quickly took Katherine and Specs down.

The last two men were circling Henry and Elmer; the latter looked terrified and was attempting to run away, but had to keep covering for the former, who was frozen, not moving an inch. Not until after Elmer shouted warnings for Henry to watch out, while one of the men swung at him with a fist of brass knuckles, did he move. By that point, it was too late. Henry had already been shoved out of the way by Elmer, who took the entire blow, right to the head. To add insult to injury, the momentum of him moving Henry was so great it caused them both to fall to the ground. That made another impact to Elmer's head, and the gang members weren't going to try to help the situation. They preferred to kick people when those people were already down.

From beside Les' trash can, the place where he had been cowering and observing the riot thus far, Romeo could hear a faint cracking sound as Elmer fell. At the sound of Henry screaming, Davey- who had been searching the battlegrounds for Les after the Delanceys left him, Jack, and Sarah alone- came running over to Romeo's hiding place. Together, they turned the trash can onto its side and rolled it into the attackers of Henry and Elmer, the force of which put the two men off-balance, giving Buttons and Jojo enough time to help Henry escort Elmer- now unconscious and bleeding quite a bit- up the steps to sit by the front door. Romeo wanted to escape with them, but Davey clearly couldn't fight on his own. Luckily, Jack and Sarah showed up to relieve him of Davey protection duty.

The doors to the school were locked, Romeo quickly discovered upon joining the group at the top of the steps. Buttons bellowed, "Somebody betta' open these goddamn doors!" pounding his fists against against the glass, through which the security guards- who had purposely barred the entryway- could be seen. It was evident that none of the people inside were going to open said goddamn doors for the rioting newsies.

Behind Buttons, Jojo knelt on the ground, Elmer's head in their lap. They had tried to stop it from bleeding by wrapping their jacket around his head. This had kind of worked. Less success was coming from Jojo's efforts to wake their patient up. Elmer was still unconscious; probably not a good state to be in when one's head was bleeding, Romeo thought. Henry stood off to the side of this, visibly pale and shaking. He may have been about to pass out or just scared out of his mind; it was honestly debatable.

From the safety of the school steps, Romeo watched the fight continue. He wanted to join in and help out the others, but he had never gone into combat with anyone before. Stage combat wasn't real, so his vague knowledge of that wasn't going to be useful in this situation. There was nothing for Romeo to do but stand, powerless, watching the riot become worse and worse as time went by. The newsies, as rough and reckless as they were, stood no chance when pitted against a gang of well-trained goons. The teenagers were all becoming more unsteady now; they fought with less aptitude after having endured so many blows.

For a moment, Race and Albert had somehow managed to get away from their attackers, so they joined the crowd on the steps. Albert repeated Buttons' order for the people inside to "Open the goddamn doors!" while Race tried desperately to reach someone by way of his cell phone.

"Backup! We need backup!" He screamed repeatedly at whoever it was, someone that clearly had not actually picked up their phone. "C'mon idiot, answer yer damn phone!" But the person didn't do so.

Finally, after what had to be nearly an hour of battle, Romeo heard the sirens wailing in the distance. As the police cars drew closer, a few of the gang members scattered, leaving the newsies they had been fighting against to collapse onto the ground or help others still in combat. Most of the goons didn't let up, but those choosing to remain did disperse, however, when the first officer stepped onto school grounds.

Romeo had been sprinting across the courtyard from the sound of the first siren; now he skidded to a stop in front of the steadily increasing crowd of police officers. Breathlessly, he cried out, "'Bout time you showed up! They're slaughterin' us!"

The last thing Romeo heard was the lead officer's baton rushing through the air towards his head, before fireworks exploded across his brain.

Look at the fireworks! Look at the fireworks fly... Light up the night sky!

Oof. Poor Romeo. Also, I swear I didn't kill Elmer (I had to back up and check when I was writing this). I just injured him. Horribly. The poor boy.

Review to let me know how far on the edge of your seat you are, and what you thought of my first time writing a battle scene (I think I did alright).

See you all tomorrow!