Disclaimer: Ok, Newsies are Disney's. Ceja, Roman, Balthazar, Driu, Leith, and Tobias are mine, I think that's it, but I could be wrong. All other characters belong to respective owners.
Last Chance
Chapter 4
Hotshot
"Jack, wake up man…" Hand's violently shoved at Jack's prone form as he lay on the bed.
"Bug off," Jack mumbled, still trapped in the web of darkness that had closed in on him the night before.
"C'mon, Jack." Another shove.
This time hands grazed his shoulder and he let out a muted yet. "Fuck!" He sat straight up on the bed and his senses jumped to alert. He could tell it was almost night just by the feel of the air. The pain in his shoulder dulled and his head snapped toward the intruder.
Combat smirked from a nearby chair, "Sorry about that."
"No you're not," He reached a hand up to rub the two scratches on his neck.
"True, I'm not." Combat nodded, "Listen it's almost sunset and we're all supposed to go out and meet up with everyone else tonight, you still want to come?"
Jack really didn't want to but he knew he should. Leith wanted him to tell them all what was going on. "Yeah."
"Well then you should probably get back into your room and shower; there's dried blood on your neck and shoulder. I think tonight's over in Brooklyn." He paused, "Did Leith tell you anything?"
Jack tried to think and find what Leith had told him. It all hit him in one big rush and he winced, "Yeah, but I'd prefer not to repeat myself too many times. I'm sure the other clans know some stuff that he didn't tell me. We'll wait until everyone's there."
"Well are you two going to stand around all day or are we actually going to go out some time this century." The two turned to find Itch standing in the doorway, pants all but hanging off her tiny frame and tank top hugging slight curves. "Get the life sucked out of yourself again, Jack?"
"Bitch."
"Well duh," she rolled her eyes. "Anyway, almost everyone's downstairs and we want to leave right at sunset."
"I'm up alright, so scram." Jack tried to swat at her as he pushed himself out of bed.
She rolled her eyes, turned, and was gone.
"Go downstairs," Jack told Combat, "Fool around with Cora and Althea or whatever it is that you do. I'll be down in a few minutes."
"Not funny," Combat warned.
Jack shrugged, "Wasn't supposed to be I guess. I'll meet you guys in the foyer in ten minutes, give or take."
Several minutes later the entire collection of teenagers was walking out the door. Jack stopped at the sight of Leith but the older vampire motioned for him to leave with his friends. Jack looked refreshed, and none would have known by looking at him the suffering he had been through the past evening. He held his head high and led his friends toward Brooklyn as his thoughts tried to avoid the topic at hand. Instead they turned to Brooklyn; Spot Conlon's territory…
Swifty was waiting inside the door as the sun went down, as always a cigarette burning on his lips. Once it was dark he stepped into the cool night air and inhaled deeply. He looked around quickly and dropped the cigarette, snuffing it out with his boot before returning inside.
He was waiting outside Roman's door as the older boy emerged, clean-shaven and dressed to go out.
"Where are we all meeting up tonight?"
"Flag was red."
"Brooklyn." He couldn't say that he was surprised. Spot and Racetrack were in Brooklyn. Spot and Racetrack were evil geniuses at finding things out. Spot and Racetrack knew something. "The others all awake and ready?"
Swifty's eyebrows slanted, "You expect this group to be up. Mina and Buzzard at least are still sleeping, as are Skittery and Dutchy, and Specs has barricaded himself in his and Dutchy's room."
"Wake up Mina and Buzzard, and round up the rest of them. I'll get Skitts and Dutchy. I need to talk to Specs."
"And kill Skittery and Dutchy for last night."
"That too."
They started in opposite directions and Swifty ducked in a door. Roman headed straight past Skittery's door and downstairs. He returned upstairs a minute later with two large glasses of cold water. First one went to Skittery, who was less that pleased to be woken up.
The first thing he noticed when he opened the door to the room Dutchy and Specs shared was that it wasn't dark. Specs' laptop illuminated the room enough for him to not fall over the piles of dirty, and clean clothes on the floor. Specs barely looked up when he entered and continued clicking and typing on the computer. He was completely dressed and ready to go.
Dutchy's form was flopped across the bed, limbs sticking in various directions, and softly snoring. Roman poured a few drops of water onto the boys face and he rubbed them away, mumbling in his sleep and rolled over. A few more drops and barely any reaction. Well there was no use really prolonging it. Roman turned the cup quickly upside down. Dutchy bolted into an upright position with a yell.
Not saying a word, and concealing a smirk Roman turned and looked over Specs shoulder. The brunette was scanning a document on some old vampire legends, and his reading was far faster than Roman's.
"Chamber?" Roman asked.
"Just checking something," Specs said, "What color flag?"
"Crimson." Roman looked over his shoulder, "You hear that Dutch, get up and get dressed. We need to be in Brooklyn in an hour."
"I thought we'd be in Manhattan tonight," Specs said turning around.
Roman shrugged and tossed a shirt at Dutchy who was still stumbling around the dark room. "Something's probably up with Kelly. Or Spot. Spot probably knows the most, and wants things done on his terms."
"You know they lost one last month, right?" Dutchy asked. His voice was thick with sleep but he was coming around. He ran a hand through his wet blonde hair.
"Who?" Roman asked. It was news to him.
"Umm… He was older than most of them, Spot too. He was seeing that girl, Loki or something."
"Noah," Specs supplied.
"You know him?" Swifty asked from where he leaned against the doorframe.
Specs nodded, "Way back when. We went to college together the third time I went. We always hung out with him." He shrugged.
"Well, everyone's ready to go when we are," Swifty said.
Roman looked over at Dutchy. The blonde was finally fully dressed though seemed slightly unsteady on his feet.
"What are you all looking at me for?" He stormed out the door and down the stairs. They followed without saying much. Once the entire group was assembled they exited through the back, out into the cool night air.
"Why are we meeting here?" Spot asked for the third time as he sat back on one of the barstools. It was barely dark and the club was basically deserted, save for the usuals who knew it's real workings.
"Because Spotty, my dear, Combat sent someone over to tell us we couldn't do it in Manhattan tonight," Nympho grinned as he smoothed back his hair.
"Well them coming here isn't exactly a great idea either considering Tobias is here!" Spot shot back.
"And what," Race grinned, "you think Driu isn't in Queens, and Leith isn't in Manhattan. I'm telling you everyone's in New York and something's going on."
"But we can't meet here." Spot snapped.
"And if you paid attention every time you asked before you'd understand that we're not meeting here. We're going to that place downtown. Honestly, Spot, that's like the fifth time I've told you."
He shrugged. As soon as the sun truly disappeared below the horizon he stood up, "Let's go."
The dozen or so of them took several back roads and alleys to cross their district. The club they were going to was already pounding out music and a long line waited at the door. Spot and his group skipped the line and walked in the door. Several people in the line argued vehemently and yelled as the bouncers just let them pass.
"I want the back room," Spot said as he reached the bar and found the owner standing behind him.
"Mr. Conlon, so good to see you again. Which one would you like?"
"The larger of the two."
The man came out form behind the bar and led them to the back wall where he unlocked the door. Once they had settled inside he turned again to Spot, "Will anyone else be joining you this evening?"
"Jack, and Roman are coming with their crews. Don't let anyone else in here. Three waiters. When I want them out, they're out."
He left and minutes later a man and two young women came into the room and began taking drink orders. Roman and the rest of his line were the first to arrive. More drinks were ordered and they greeted each other like old friends.
There was some inter-clan dating. Ceja settled into a chair with Specs from Roman's line. They'd met several years before when she mistook him for a human and tried to bite him. Spot himself, had a girl in each line.
The arrival of Jack and Manhattan was much like that of the arrival of Roman and the Queens vampires, one where many drinks were ordered and everyone was warmly greeted. Well, most of them.
Roman greeted Jack warmly, and then Jack turned to find Spot in the crowded room. The two locked eyes for a moment and Spot raised his glass in Jacks direction before downing it and turning to Cora, his girl from Jack's line.
After an hour or so of drinking and partying the waiters were rushed out of the room and the door closed. The music from the rest of the club was muted, with the exception of the bass nothing was heard. The forty or so of them settled onto tables, couches, chairs, and occasionally the floor and the room fell quiet.
Since they were in Brooklyn territory Spot was the one to ask the questions and the first to speak. "Your leaders are back too? And something's going on that they won't tell you?"
Roman and Jack both agreed.
"We tried to listed to the meeting through the speaker system," Spot continued with his line's series of events. "All we got before Tobias figured it out was that there was some kind of disruption among or around all the lines, and it's something that's going to keep the leaders here for a while. But, like I said, Tobias caught us. That's all we know."
"That's it!" Rings laughed, "We came all the way to the almighty Brooklyn because Spot Conlon wanted us to, and yet you have nothing other than that there's a problem. We fucking have more than that!"
"Rings," Snitch snapped. He made a slitting throat motion across neck, "Just shut and drop it."
The small girl harrumphed and sank into a chair, her curls bouncing behind her.
"Well." Spot leered at the group.
Swifty lit up a cigarette, effectively catching Spot's attention. "Why should we tell you anything?" he asked before inhaling deeply.
"Because we created this council because the adults are stupid and don't tell us anything," Pie Eater snapped. He was within two feet of Swifty and didn't flinch when the Asian boy blew a smoke-ring into his face.
"Fair enough," Swifty muttered, "But hey, personally I don't know anything."
"Roman?" Grock prompted some kind of response.
"The covenant, in case any of you don't know that's the structured vampire government. Anyway, they're basically all the elder vampires who run things and most of them live in Europe or whatever. Anyway, I guess some bad news reached them because they're coming to New York.
"Driu's not sure, but he thinks it's partly about us. You know how the teenage vampire thing is still controversial. Supposedly our three lines have the largest population of them anywhere, and there's some question about it being a hazard or something like that."
"And…" Racetrack asked.
"And those two morons," he motioned toward Skittery and Dutchy, "knocked over an urn before I could hear exactly what was said. But, umm… Driu mentioned something about them using the chamber."
Both Blink and Pickpocket tried the word out on their lips as though it seemed familiar.
"And I'll let Specs explain that one to you because I have no earthly idea where, or what it is."
Specs disentangled himself from Hotshot and moved over next to Roman. "The chamber is one of those secret meeting places the vampire's built when this country was founded. The one they're talking about, I'm almost certain it's the one under the Statue of Liberty. I'm checking with a source tonight and going to check it out as soon as possible. I don't know how well in order it's been kept. It hasn't been used since the mid-1980s. I'll have a model, secret passages, seating capacity, everything by next week."
"What about you, Manhattan?" Swinger ventured. "Anything else, or are we running on a haunch?"
All the dozen or so from Manhattan turned to stare at Jack. Some were discreet but some just outright stared.
"Jack?" Spot asked smirking, "Care to share?"
"Leith gave me some information." He said.
Silence fell.
"Well Kelly, not all of us are mind readers." Skittery provoked.
"Umm… all of what Roman and Specs said. The chamber is the one under the statue. And the meetings are supposed to take place every hundred years or so anyway. That's Balthazar's excuse for coming. Driu was right; it does have to do with us. Balthazar was in New York something like two hundred, maybe three hundred years ago, back before most of us were made. He had a run in with a teenage vampire. And as far as anyone knows Balthazar's like the oldest vampire, and the most powerful.
"So this teenage vampire got into a confrontation with him. Balthazar's used to getting what he wanted, and he wanted a free meal, but this teenager, he put up a fight." He felt a pair of eyes almost boring a hole in his skull but refused to look up to meet them.
"So he and this teenager got into a fight. The teenager showed him up, and this was at a conference point. Everyone was there. Everyone saw it. It's one of those things the younger generation might not learn about or remember, but the older one's' they never forget.
"Anyway, the meeting this time is because he wants to wipe out our race or some bullshit like that. He thinks we're all a nuisance and he's got some percentage convinced that we're a threat and we make it more likely of being discovered. I hate it." He put his hands to his forehead. "Of course they'll talk about other things too but that's his main focus. Basically Leith warned me that we have to make some kind of appearance or take a stand at the conference. We may have to fight. I don't know."
"What happened to him?" Ian asked, "The guy who fought with Balthazar?"
"He's died since then; a random killing by a slayer. There's a rumor that Balthazar tipped them off somehow."
"Well, he was in one of our lines; who was it?"
Jack raised his eyes and met large brown eyes. A smirk played on the girl's lips.
"It was Noah," she said quietly as she started fiddling with one of her many rings. "Noah got that son of a bitch."
The rest of her line grinned, as did several other people in the room. It was like him. Noah and fighting went together. He was smart but far too opinionated and didn't let anyone get into his head.
Jack nodded. "Look, I don't want to go through this a million more times. The conference starts in a little over a month. Until then we have to start planning some kind of appeal in case this can be solved easily."
That earned him numerous raised eyebrows and several calculating looks.
"Riiight." Someone said brightly from a dark corner of the room.
That actually earned one of Jack's toothy grins, "Exactly the thoughts or our leaders. In that case we also need to plan some kind of attack strategy. If we have to kill some of them then so be it, but I don't plan on playing into Balthazar's hands and messing all of this up. We need something good. Face it, people are probably going to die doing this."
"Maybe we can take Balthazar out." Spot suggested.
Jack rolled his eyes, "That is entirely too optimistic."
"So that's what we shoot for," Combat elbowed his friend. "See it my way. If we aim way over our heads we'll be more prepared and hopefully get some final product that yields good results."
Jack shook his head and tried to argue when the door was opened quietly.
"Mr. Conlon?" the bars owner stuck his head in the door, "We're closing up in ten minutes."
"We'll be out by then," Spot promised. After the door closed he turned to Jack. "So Swifty, Shock and Ceja will be runners between the boroughs and we'll keep the computers online. Keep an eye on the massage board and we'll meet up somewhere again at the end of this week."
"Yeah," Jack agreed.
Roman nodded.
As if their leader affirmations were a signal to leave everyone began to rise from their seats and head toward various exits. They mingled among the crowds leaving that and other clubs before turning in the direction of their own turfs.
"I don't trust that plan." Jack said.
Combat and David rolled their eyes.
"What else would you have us do, huh Jack. Run?" Combat asked.
"Maybe." Jack replied.
"I don't care if they're elders, Jack, they got no reason not to trust us. An adult vampire is just as likely to fuck up and reveal us as one of us."
"It seemed like you knew more," David said to Jack, "From that thing with Leith. Everyone made a huge deal out of it, and it really wasn't a lot of information."
"Who says I told them all of it?" Jack kept walking as his two friends paused for a beat. "Leith told me I couldn't tell them everything at once."
"Research tonight?" Roman asked.
"I can have a model done on the projector by tomorrow. There's a ton of information about all the chambers online, it's just a matter of knowing which one you're looking for."
"How do you find this stuff?"
Specs smirked, "Fan sites, myths, books written in the late 1900s."
Roman shook his head, "Figures." He licked his lips. "Oh, I need to find something to eat."
"There's a place in Harlem that's open until about four am."
"Picked up a few there?"
"Snitch and Itey told me about it. It's crowded. No one notices a thing."
"He didn't tell us everything." Spot snapped, hands deep in the pockets of his jacket.
"Spot, if I told you my life story you'd be mad because I couldn't remember the day I was born." Race muttered. "Of course he didn't tell you everything. He told you what was important."
"No, he left something big out. I can tell."
"Whatever Spot. I'll catch up to you guys in the morning." He fan after a pair of women who had exited the club and were chatting excitedly near them. "Buona sera." He greeted them.
Pickpocket just rolled his eyes. "Race is probably right Spot. You've always been paranoid."
"I don't trust him."
"Whatever man."
As the two neared their home Spot caught sight of a leggy blonde girl who seemed to be heading home herself.
"How's tomorrow's headline looking?" he asked with a nod as he started off in her direction.
Pickpocket sighed and rolled his eyes. He took a turn down an alley towards one of the nearby colleges. There was always a party to be had around there and plenty of willing teenagers.
The big problems could wait until he'd had a good meal and slept a little.
A/N: Yeah so I have this feeling Sinhe's going to attack me when she sees I posted this. Sorry it took me so long, but I have a tentative plot now, and I figured out where to go with this chapter. Hopefully I'll get another chapter or two up before school starts because my workload is going to kill me this year.
-huge grin-
By the way, Gothica, Loki is an awesome character. I'm going to have so much fun with her.
Love to all the reviewers, though I'm not doing shout outs. As for everyone reading this, leave me a review and I'll send you the vampire!newsie of your choice. sorry about any spacing crap. ffn has been deleting spacing between scenes on me lately.
Hotshot