Chapter 6--- Unpleasant Encounters
Slick knew she was being unfair, leaving her friends at Tibby's without an explanation for what had happened, but she just couldn't bring herself to give one. Explaining Slider, and why she knew he was here would just bring up what had happened in Chicago, and what she was running from, she couldn't put her friends through that, she couldn't put herself through it again either. Sighing, Slick looked around the streets outside Tibby's for any sign of Slider or any other Chicago gang member, from any of the three gangs. None. "DAMN YOU SLIDER!!" Slick cursed in Italian, a language she was very fluent in. When she'd been in Chicago, her and other gangsters had used Italian to communicate around English only speaking people, other gangs had used other languages, but hers was Italian, she like the language too, it was slick, it ran off your tongue easily. Jamming her hands into her pants pockets, Slick walked off into the streets, in search of something, she wasn't sure what, maybe Slider, she had an aching to soak him that needed to be fulfilled.
************
"Slick's jus' gonna leave us 'ere without explainin' who da 'ell that guy was?" Mush asked of his friends.
"Kinda looks that way." Race answered, still looking at the door Slick had walked out.
"We can't do anythin' anyways, that guy seemed ta have Slick scared pretty damn bad." Spot took his turn in reasoning with what had just happened.
"Well we can't jus' sit 'ere! I wanna know who that Slider guy is, he an' Slick sure seem ta have a history." Blink put in.
Jack just sat in shock and thought, the guy's threat still ringing in his mind, 'I would inform your friend to sit back down Brooklyn, if you know what's good for him, you and the rest of 'em.'
"Ey Jack, you ok dere?"
"Yeah Race fine." Jack looked back at his friends in a daze, "Let's go back ta the House, I don' wanna sit 'round 'ere anymore." They all looked at him, nodded, paid their tab, and left, the rest of the Manhattan Newsies were soon to follow.
****************
"Damn, she ain't there."
"She's one a those Newsies though ain't she?"
"Yeah, but she ain't with 'em."
Two figures crouched in an alleyway watching the Manhattan Newsies file out of Tibby's after their lunch. Their accents were no where close to being those of normal New Yorkers, and held a distinctness all their own.
"Well she ain't here, an' she ain't in Brooklyn, which is where she talked about all the time, and she ain't in the Bronx, or Harlem, or Queens, so where the hell is she Raider?!"
The boy called Raider, looked at his friend, "I never said she wasn' in this borough, she jus' ain't in there with the rest of those boys, an' besides, didja see the first two to come out Sly? The one with the cowboy hat an' bandanna, an' the otha one with the slingshot an' cane? Those are the boys she talked about all the time, Cowboy an' Spot, I's heard their names all 'round here, which means if they're here, then Brooklyn'll be 'round here somewheres too."
Sly just sulked, and muttered some Italian curse at Raider, who merely raised an eyebrow in response, and pulled his friend out into the sun-lit street. The New York passerbys looked with disgusted curiosity at the two boys.
Raider was extremely tall and skinny with shaggy jet-black hair and expressive green eyes, a true Italian, and most found him slightly intimidating. He was excellent at his talent, raiding, or thieving as one might call it, one of the top most relied guys in his old gang.
Sly wasn't near as tall as Raider, but he wasn't short either, he was skinny too, but most street kids are. Sly had dark blonde hair and dark blue eyes, he wasn't quite sure of his heritage, but he was proud to call himself an American. He wasn't near as intimidating as Raider, but he didn't need to be, Sly got around by being just that, sly, he was sneaky and an accomplished pickpocket.
"Common Sly, we might as well keep looking for her, it's a big city, an' I'd hate ta think what would happen if Slider got a hold of her before we did." Sly nodded and agreed, it was better if they found Hot Shot (aka.. Brooklyn!) before Slider, but he doubted that would be the case, knowing both parties.
************
******A Few hours and Poker Games Later*******
"Where is she Spot? I don' like 'er bein' out dis late with that guy out dere." Spot glanced at his friend, Jack had been a mess for the past few hours. No one had heard from or seen Slick in that long, under normal circumstances, no one would have been worried and they would have assumed she'd gone off, and would be back later. But these weren't normal circumstances, and though he'd be the last to admit it, Spot was worried about her too.
****************
"Ah Brooklyn, nice ta see ya again my dear."
Slick nearly jumped out of her skin, she had been making her way towards the Lodging House, giving up on finding Slider. It was late, she was tired, and she really didn't want to find him in the dark, but unfortunately, the latter seemed inevitable, especially when he was looking for her. Turning, she coolly faced him, "Slider."
"Come here." He beckoned her into the alley, she obliged, but just barely, keeping her thoughts and actions controlled no matter how much fear she was feeling. "My, my, my, doesn't this look familiar, you, me, a dark alley, my knife, your dagger, it's all just a change of scene." He lunged at her, knife in hand.
*************
"Did you hear that?" Sly stopped to listen. *crash*, *thump*.
"Yeah, I heard it, common, over here." Raider led the way to an alley up the street. They reached it just as they saw a glint of eyes, and a figure drag a limp figure over the wall and out of sight.
"Ohhhhhhhhh." Two pairs of eyes fell on the limp figure laying in the dirt. And two Italian curses filled the air simultaneously
"Common Sly, we need to get her to the Lodging House, so we can see how bad they worked her over."
"Which one?"
"I ain't draggin' her ass all the way ta Brooklyn."
"Ah, right, uh, it's over a few streets."
"Yeah, help me lift her. I'm gonna kill those son ofa b*tches someday."
*****************
**Knock knock** Jack looked up, startled, no one ever knocked on the Lodging House door, most knew just to come in. He looked around, most of the other newsies had stopped what they had been doing, which was mainly lounging around the lobby and playing or watching poker, and looked at the door. The knocks sounded again, and was Kloopman, walked up and opened the door, revealing two standing figures, with a third slumped in the taller one's arms. "What the hell..."
**********
Sly and Raider walked into the Newsboy Lodging House, amidst the stares of all it's occupants.
*********
It only took Jack a second to recognize the figure in the tall boy's arms, Slick. He turned his glare to the two boys. Spot did the same, along with Blink, Race, Mush, and pretty much the rest of the newsie household.
*********
"Uh, Raider, I think, that they think, that we did this to her." Sly whispered to Raider in Italian, Raider gave a brief nod, glaring back at the boys, his green eyes flashing.
"Did you?" a voice asked near Sly in broken Italian.
Both looked visibly startled and turned to look at the short Italian with the cigar hanging out of his mouth at Sly's elbow. Raider's eyes narrowed as he looked at the boy, "No, we found her in an alley and brought her here."
The rest of the newsies were looking between Race and the two strangers confused, they were speaking in a language unknown to them, but what most of them guessed to be Italian based on their knowledge of Race's heritage.
Race nodded, and turned to his friends, "They didn' do dis, dey said dey found 'im in an alley." The other newsies nodded, and turned their glares into looks of appreciation and relief that Slick was still alive.
Raider and Sly looked at each other, sharing an unspoken statement, 'New Yorkers have horrible accents.'
"Uh, 'ere, let's take 'er upstairs, inta da extra bunkroom." Jack said turning and leading the way, the rest of the Manhatteners, an unconscious Slick, plus two Chicogoans following. (Yeah, they ARE from Chicago, in case you hadn't figured it out yet).
Raider carefully laid Slick down on a bunk and began seeing to her wounds, ignoring the newsies. "Someone go get me some water an' a couple of rags." Jack looked at Blink, who quickly complied. "Uh, Sly, come'ere." Raider, gently pulled the ripped left sleeve of Slick's shirt up to her shoulder.
Sly took one look at the scars, both old and new, and let out an Italian curse that would have made mothers faint. "Both of 'em now?!" He was shaking he was so angry.
Jack and Spot saw both boys looking at something on Slick's left arm, and remembered how Slider had been rubbing that arm earlier that day, they exchanged a glance, and moved forward to see. Neither boy was prepared for what they saw, and both faces paled before getting angry. "What is dat?!" Jack all but yelled at the black-haired boy.
Raider looked back at Jack, his face just as angry, and his eyes blazing, "That," he said pointing to one of the knifed in designs, the one that resembled a whip and something else neither Jack nor Spot could make out "is Slider's mark. And that," he pointed to the newly carved serpent winding it's way around Slick's arm, "is Snake's mark."
"Hot Shot, is NOT gonna be happy to know that they are both here." Sly said looking at Raider, "'Cause I doubt she knows Snake's here, 'e's too much of a wuss when it comes to her, he wouldda knocked her unconscious before marking her."
"Waita sec. I thought Slick was Brooklyn ta ya people." Spot broke in, interrupting Sly.
Sly quirked an eyebrow, "She is, ta most of the ToC that is, but ta a few she's Hot Shot." Most of the newsies smirked, the name fit Slick well.
"Uh, she? Whydaya keep callin' Slick or whateva a she?" Race asked confused.
This time four pairs of confused eyes turned to him and the rest of the newsies who seemed to want an answer to the same question. Sly and Raider looked at each other before turning to Jack and Spot, with raised eyebrows.
"Cause Slick, or whateva ya wanna call 'er, IS a goil, dats why." Jack answered, looking at all of his wide-eyed newsies, "I thought ya all knew dat already."
Blink's eyes were perhaps the widest as he looked from his unconscious best friend back to Jack, Spot and the two newcomers, he hadn't known that.
Raider cleared his throat uneasily, he'd finished wiping the blood from Slick and he now looked at the two leaders.
Jack jumped slightly, turning back to the black and blonde-haired boy. "Sorry, I guess we ain't been introduced yet, the names Kelly, Jack Kelly, I's da leadah 'ere in Mahattan." He spit in his hand an offered it to the black-haired boy.
"Raider, formerly a Razz Hawk." Raider replied spiting in his hand and shaking Jack's.
"Sly, formerly a Razz Hawk too." Sly repeated Raider's actions.
"Spot Conlon, leadah of Brooklyn." Spot offered his hand too, after spiting in it.
"Raider."
"Sly."
"I think Slick 'ere'll be ok, 'ow 'bout we go inta da otha bunkroom, an' ya boys can tell us, more 'bout yerselves, an' 'ow ya know Slick 'ere." Spot looked at Jack, who nodded, turned and walked out into the other room, Sly, Raider, and the rest of the Manhattan Newsie force following.
**********
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Wow, 3 chapters in one weekend! Don't get use to it! LUCKY: thank ya for yer review! I'm doing my best not to stress myself, but I wanna get as much as possible up, so as not to keep ya waiting! Well what do ya think so far? I've still got secrets to reveal, but that'll come later, if you people keep reviewing, so I know if you actually like it!! So Review if you wanna see more! Thank ya much!
Slick knew she was being unfair, leaving her friends at Tibby's without an explanation for what had happened, but she just couldn't bring herself to give one. Explaining Slider, and why she knew he was here would just bring up what had happened in Chicago, and what she was running from, she couldn't put her friends through that, she couldn't put herself through it again either. Sighing, Slick looked around the streets outside Tibby's for any sign of Slider or any other Chicago gang member, from any of the three gangs. None. "DAMN YOU SLIDER!!" Slick cursed in Italian, a language she was very fluent in. When she'd been in Chicago, her and other gangsters had used Italian to communicate around English only speaking people, other gangs had used other languages, but hers was Italian, she like the language too, it was slick, it ran off your tongue easily. Jamming her hands into her pants pockets, Slick walked off into the streets, in search of something, she wasn't sure what, maybe Slider, she had an aching to soak him that needed to be fulfilled.
************
"Slick's jus' gonna leave us 'ere without explainin' who da 'ell that guy was?" Mush asked of his friends.
"Kinda looks that way." Race answered, still looking at the door Slick had walked out.
"We can't do anythin' anyways, that guy seemed ta have Slick scared pretty damn bad." Spot took his turn in reasoning with what had just happened.
"Well we can't jus' sit 'ere! I wanna know who that Slider guy is, he an' Slick sure seem ta have a history." Blink put in.
Jack just sat in shock and thought, the guy's threat still ringing in his mind, 'I would inform your friend to sit back down Brooklyn, if you know what's good for him, you and the rest of 'em.'
"Ey Jack, you ok dere?"
"Yeah Race fine." Jack looked back at his friends in a daze, "Let's go back ta the House, I don' wanna sit 'round 'ere anymore." They all looked at him, nodded, paid their tab, and left, the rest of the Manhattan Newsies were soon to follow.
****************
"Damn, she ain't there."
"She's one a those Newsies though ain't she?"
"Yeah, but she ain't with 'em."
Two figures crouched in an alleyway watching the Manhattan Newsies file out of Tibby's after their lunch. Their accents were no where close to being those of normal New Yorkers, and held a distinctness all their own.
"Well she ain't here, an' she ain't in Brooklyn, which is where she talked about all the time, and she ain't in the Bronx, or Harlem, or Queens, so where the hell is she Raider?!"
The boy called Raider, looked at his friend, "I never said she wasn' in this borough, she jus' ain't in there with the rest of those boys, an' besides, didja see the first two to come out Sly? The one with the cowboy hat an' bandanna, an' the otha one with the slingshot an' cane? Those are the boys she talked about all the time, Cowboy an' Spot, I's heard their names all 'round here, which means if they're here, then Brooklyn'll be 'round here somewheres too."
Sly just sulked, and muttered some Italian curse at Raider, who merely raised an eyebrow in response, and pulled his friend out into the sun-lit street. The New York passerbys looked with disgusted curiosity at the two boys.
Raider was extremely tall and skinny with shaggy jet-black hair and expressive green eyes, a true Italian, and most found him slightly intimidating. He was excellent at his talent, raiding, or thieving as one might call it, one of the top most relied guys in his old gang.
Sly wasn't near as tall as Raider, but he wasn't short either, he was skinny too, but most street kids are. Sly had dark blonde hair and dark blue eyes, he wasn't quite sure of his heritage, but he was proud to call himself an American. He wasn't near as intimidating as Raider, but he didn't need to be, Sly got around by being just that, sly, he was sneaky and an accomplished pickpocket.
"Common Sly, we might as well keep looking for her, it's a big city, an' I'd hate ta think what would happen if Slider got a hold of her before we did." Sly nodded and agreed, it was better if they found Hot Shot (aka.. Brooklyn!) before Slider, but he doubted that would be the case, knowing both parties.
************
******A Few hours and Poker Games Later*******
"Where is she Spot? I don' like 'er bein' out dis late with that guy out dere." Spot glanced at his friend, Jack had been a mess for the past few hours. No one had heard from or seen Slick in that long, under normal circumstances, no one would have been worried and they would have assumed she'd gone off, and would be back later. But these weren't normal circumstances, and though he'd be the last to admit it, Spot was worried about her too.
****************
"Ah Brooklyn, nice ta see ya again my dear."
Slick nearly jumped out of her skin, she had been making her way towards the Lodging House, giving up on finding Slider. It was late, she was tired, and she really didn't want to find him in the dark, but unfortunately, the latter seemed inevitable, especially when he was looking for her. Turning, she coolly faced him, "Slider."
"Come here." He beckoned her into the alley, she obliged, but just barely, keeping her thoughts and actions controlled no matter how much fear she was feeling. "My, my, my, doesn't this look familiar, you, me, a dark alley, my knife, your dagger, it's all just a change of scene." He lunged at her, knife in hand.
*************
"Did you hear that?" Sly stopped to listen. *crash*, *thump*.
"Yeah, I heard it, common, over here." Raider led the way to an alley up the street. They reached it just as they saw a glint of eyes, and a figure drag a limp figure over the wall and out of sight.
"Ohhhhhhhhh." Two pairs of eyes fell on the limp figure laying in the dirt. And two Italian curses filled the air simultaneously
"Common Sly, we need to get her to the Lodging House, so we can see how bad they worked her over."
"Which one?"
"I ain't draggin' her ass all the way ta Brooklyn."
"Ah, right, uh, it's over a few streets."
"Yeah, help me lift her. I'm gonna kill those son ofa b*tches someday."
*****************
**Knock knock** Jack looked up, startled, no one ever knocked on the Lodging House door, most knew just to come in. He looked around, most of the other newsies had stopped what they had been doing, which was mainly lounging around the lobby and playing or watching poker, and looked at the door. The knocks sounded again, and was Kloopman, walked up and opened the door, revealing two standing figures, with a third slumped in the taller one's arms. "What the hell..."
**********
Sly and Raider walked into the Newsboy Lodging House, amidst the stares of all it's occupants.
*********
It only took Jack a second to recognize the figure in the tall boy's arms, Slick. He turned his glare to the two boys. Spot did the same, along with Blink, Race, Mush, and pretty much the rest of the newsie household.
*********
"Uh, Raider, I think, that they think, that we did this to her." Sly whispered to Raider in Italian, Raider gave a brief nod, glaring back at the boys, his green eyes flashing.
"Did you?" a voice asked near Sly in broken Italian.
Both looked visibly startled and turned to look at the short Italian with the cigar hanging out of his mouth at Sly's elbow. Raider's eyes narrowed as he looked at the boy, "No, we found her in an alley and brought her here."
The rest of the newsies were looking between Race and the two strangers confused, they were speaking in a language unknown to them, but what most of them guessed to be Italian based on their knowledge of Race's heritage.
Race nodded, and turned to his friends, "They didn' do dis, dey said dey found 'im in an alley." The other newsies nodded, and turned their glares into looks of appreciation and relief that Slick was still alive.
Raider and Sly looked at each other, sharing an unspoken statement, 'New Yorkers have horrible accents.'
"Uh, 'ere, let's take 'er upstairs, inta da extra bunkroom." Jack said turning and leading the way, the rest of the Manhatteners, an unconscious Slick, plus two Chicogoans following. (Yeah, they ARE from Chicago, in case you hadn't figured it out yet).
Raider carefully laid Slick down on a bunk and began seeing to her wounds, ignoring the newsies. "Someone go get me some water an' a couple of rags." Jack looked at Blink, who quickly complied. "Uh, Sly, come'ere." Raider, gently pulled the ripped left sleeve of Slick's shirt up to her shoulder.
Sly took one look at the scars, both old and new, and let out an Italian curse that would have made mothers faint. "Both of 'em now?!" He was shaking he was so angry.
Jack and Spot saw both boys looking at something on Slick's left arm, and remembered how Slider had been rubbing that arm earlier that day, they exchanged a glance, and moved forward to see. Neither boy was prepared for what they saw, and both faces paled before getting angry. "What is dat?!" Jack all but yelled at the black-haired boy.
Raider looked back at Jack, his face just as angry, and his eyes blazing, "That," he said pointing to one of the knifed in designs, the one that resembled a whip and something else neither Jack nor Spot could make out "is Slider's mark. And that," he pointed to the newly carved serpent winding it's way around Slick's arm, "is Snake's mark."
"Hot Shot, is NOT gonna be happy to know that they are both here." Sly said looking at Raider, "'Cause I doubt she knows Snake's here, 'e's too much of a wuss when it comes to her, he wouldda knocked her unconscious before marking her."
"Waita sec. I thought Slick was Brooklyn ta ya people." Spot broke in, interrupting Sly.
Sly quirked an eyebrow, "She is, ta most of the ToC that is, but ta a few she's Hot Shot." Most of the newsies smirked, the name fit Slick well.
"Uh, she? Whydaya keep callin' Slick or whateva a she?" Race asked confused.
This time four pairs of confused eyes turned to him and the rest of the newsies who seemed to want an answer to the same question. Sly and Raider looked at each other before turning to Jack and Spot, with raised eyebrows.
"Cause Slick, or whateva ya wanna call 'er, IS a goil, dats why." Jack answered, looking at all of his wide-eyed newsies, "I thought ya all knew dat already."
Blink's eyes were perhaps the widest as he looked from his unconscious best friend back to Jack, Spot and the two newcomers, he hadn't known that.
Raider cleared his throat uneasily, he'd finished wiping the blood from Slick and he now looked at the two leaders.
Jack jumped slightly, turning back to the black and blonde-haired boy. "Sorry, I guess we ain't been introduced yet, the names Kelly, Jack Kelly, I's da leadah 'ere in Mahattan." He spit in his hand an offered it to the black-haired boy.
"Raider, formerly a Razz Hawk." Raider replied spiting in his hand and shaking Jack's.
"Sly, formerly a Razz Hawk too." Sly repeated Raider's actions.
"Spot Conlon, leadah of Brooklyn." Spot offered his hand too, after spiting in it.
"Raider."
"Sly."
"I think Slick 'ere'll be ok, 'ow 'bout we go inta da otha bunkroom, an' ya boys can tell us, more 'bout yerselves, an' 'ow ya know Slick 'ere." Spot looked at Jack, who nodded, turned and walked out into the other room, Sly, Raider, and the rest of the Manhattan Newsie force following.
**********
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Wow, 3 chapters in one weekend! Don't get use to it! LUCKY: thank ya for yer review! I'm doing my best not to stress myself, but I wanna get as much as possible up, so as not to keep ya waiting! Well what do ya think so far? I've still got secrets to reveal, but that'll come later, if you people keep reviewing, so I know if you actually like it!! So Review if you wanna see more! Thank ya much!