A/N: Okay, I don't know how good this chapter is. I think it's good up until the last bit. But anyway, tell me what you think!

Disclaimer: I do not own Newsies, nor any of their characters, Disney does. Also, Tyrant belongs to Air, Bullet to Runaway, and Griff to Gip.

Chapter Twenty-Six: Trigger an' Kattie

Trigger was in a bad mood that night when Bullet and Tyrant came into the lodging house. Spunk had been beaten while in their own territory, and Bittah – who was supposed to be with the Manhattan group- had saved her.

Glad as he was that Bittah had saved the fourteen year-old, it meant that she had purposefully disobeyed him and broken off from her group to be on her own. His day had turned worse when he'd mouthed off to her about it, and then slapped her hard, only to receive a black eye in return.

His day had not improved at all since. First the Central Park group had come back with not even as much news as a fist fight. Then Bittah's original group had come back only to tell him that no Manhattan newsies had been on the streets all day.

Now, as he watched Bullet and Tyrant walk through the door without the group from Harlem he'd hoped for, his rage and fury from the full day final explode. His targets were the duo he'd sent forth as ambassadors.

"You'se didn' bring anybody back wit' yas!" he yelled angrily, mouthing off as was his typical fashion. "What da fk has da two a you'se been doin' all dn d-"

His shouting stopped dead as his eyes caught hold of the lone exquisite figure who followed the duo through the door.

"We's didin' come back completely empty-handed," Bullet said, smirking at Trigger's lightly dropped jaw.

Trigger stared for another minute, before two fingers lightly touched the bottom of his open jaw, and pushed it gently shut. As the girl retracted her hand, he softly grabbed it, and giving it a pull, caused her to step forward, until she was only a half-foot away from him.

She lost some of her commanding air as he saw that she stood 10 inches shorter than him. Regarding her, a smirk came to his face as he realized this feminine beauty was now his subject, and thus, his to do whatever he pleased with.

Holding her breath, Criss-Cross tried not to shudder as Trigger slid his arm around her waist, resting his palm on the base of her spine.

Who da fkin' hell does 'e t'ink 'e is! she thought furiously. 'E t'inks 'e can jus' walk all ovah anyone undah 'is control! Damit, 'e's is wrong!

She had trouble hiding her thorough disgust as he began sliding his hand up and down her back. But instead of going with her strong impulse to deck him hard, she afforded him with a small, sly, sensual smile, and forced a spark of interest into her eye, keeping to the character she was portraying.

Trigger was actually quite handsome in truth, and had Criss-Cross not hated him, nor had she known the true, evil, despicable Trigger Jones, she would probably have liked him. He had straight, soft, black hair, that –like Jack Kelly's- was parted in the middle , and sometimes fell into his "tortured" dark, forest green eyes. He was well-muscled, with broad shoulders, and prominent forearms. His height of 6 feet 2 commanded respect, and his fine-featured face buttered girls right up.

Criss-Cross saw a glint come into Trigger's eyes as he watched her looking him up and down. He yanked her hard up against him, and leaned down to kiss her in the hard, long, commanding, daring, sure-fire, "all-that" way that all borough leaders had.

She cringed as his lips touched hers, but thankfully only for an instant, as someone behind Trigger cleared their throat. He whipped his head around, and she peered around him as the boy spoke.

"An' who's dis?" he asked in a gruff, low voice. Criss-Cross recognized him as a boy named Griff. He had once been the hard, cruel leader of the Bronx. Believing, as the leader before him had, that beating the kids he lorded over was the way to teach them how to be tough and learn to fight. Though, he was cautious about making sure that none of them ever became better than him or were able to overthrow him.

What 'e's don' realize is dat all dey gotsta do is come ta Brooklyn foah a spell ta loin how ta fight… she thought, as she gave him the same up and down, judging look that she'd given Trigger.

Griff had a dangerous, mysterious look to him, though, like Trigger he was quite handsome, but his looks were deceiving and deadly. He was thick through the chest and arms, and girls in later centuries would describe him as having a football player build. Like Trigger, he was well-muscled, and stood near six feet tall. His dark brown hair hung in his gray eyes, that had a look to them like a sea during a storm, and she knew he was twice as deadly. A knife hung at his side, Criss-Cross remembered it from her brief –very very brief- stay in the Bronx, and could still remember how fast his hand could fly to it and have it at your throat.

Blushing politely and fluttering her eyelashes a little, she responded, "I'm Kattie. Though, I used to be called Sass –or Sassy- back in the old Midwest…"

"Nice ta meet yas," Trigger said, still holding her hard against him. "I'se Triggah Jones. Da leadah a dis heah lodgin' house, an' two uddahs. One in da Bronx, wheah Bullet an' Griff dere's from, an' one in Queens, wheah me's an' Tyrant are from. An' I'se pretty much rule the whole of New Yawk."

Cringing inwardly and cursing herself for her plan, she moved her body in even tighter against his, and then swayed her head back and forth, allowing her cheek and nose to brush his chest, while the top of her head brush his chin. Completely in character, she murmured, "So I hear. And that's why I came to your quaint little lodging house, and to meet you."

She could feel him grinning above her head, and a satisfied smirk came to her lips, that she quickly changed to a pleading, sensual smile as Trigger looked down at her. Then, he spun her to his side, and with his arm still around her waist, snapped at the watching three boys, "What are yas lookin' at! Get yer asses inta dat great room righ' now! An' Bullet, take her bag up to da goils bunkroom! An' den get Bittah ta give her a touah a da lodgin' house, an' tell her not ta foiget ta show wheah me room is. A'ight? Now get gone!"

When all three had disappeared, he walked her over to a bench lining one of the walls, and sat them both on it, rubbing his hand up and down her left thigh. Twitching her right calf in anger, she regarded him with the soft eyes of the female she was portraying. Then, watching him stare at her, she lowered her lids until her eyes were veiled, and gave a soft blush.

"So'se, miss Kattie, what's yer story?" he asked, tracing a finger lazily up to her hipbone and then further up her side.

"Well, I'm a Colorado girl, born and bred," she explained softly. "But the normal housegirl act just, well, it didn't suit me. So, I hooked up with a few boys from around town, and we formed a sort of gang you could say. Well, actually, definitely a gang. And after getting ourselves into so much trouble that the coppers were looking for us, we fled our first town, and moved onto the next, and so on and so forth. We ended up in Kentucky, with half the members we'd started out with, and in Kentucky we stayed for about half a year, having a grand old time.

"That is until the scum of a boy I had began to have affairs on me. I caught him once, and told him to never do it again. And, well, we had to flee that town the next day, as the girl he'd been with, was, well, comatose you could say. See, I'm known to be a little over-protective of my men. That doesn't mean that I'd make a girl comatose over one! And it wasn't like I knew that she was going to slip out of a second story window while we were heatedly discussing the issues of taken men. The girl was just a natural klutz, that's all.

"But never-the-less, the police thought I'd done it, so, we left Kentucky in a hurry, and soon found ourselves in Virginia. And then Connecticut, and then Delaware. And it was in Delaware that old Fellah –as we all called my boy- did it again with another girl. Now, it's not like it seems. He and I had been together for four years by this point. And most of the group was gone, it was just 5 of us then. Out of the original 20.

"And, well, I fled the group and Delaware soon after I, leaving behind the two tragic lovers, who had gotten killed by a squad of drunk goons. It was awful, and once again everyone blamed me. But oh well…" she sighed dramatically, and then gave him a fiery look. "And now I'm here, with the new name of Kattie, because, well, I can get a little, well, catty when someone else steals my man. Not to mention it's a change off of my real first name, Katherine."

"Dat's quite some story yas got dere," he said, tracing his finger alone her jawline. Leaning in to kiss her hard as he had tried to do before they were interrupted, he murmured, "A murdahress an' a cat, yas'll fit righ' in heah."

And with Criss-Cross cringing hard, he kissed her, in the same manner she had seen her brother kiss girls before, and as he grabbed her tattooed shoulder in his calloused grip, she felt a fire along the SC, and realized the place brought more sense of her than she'd felt in years. And she felt her heart banging hard against her ribs, like it would lead her too him.

'E's dead d'ough… she reminded herself, and looking over Trigger's shoulder, she saw Spot's old right-hand man Advantage walking quietly and sullenly up the stairs, and had to blink back tears from her eyes as she thought again, 'e's dead…

A/N: Spot: So'se what did yas t'ink? (An' yeah, I'se runnin' da show foah a minute cuz da kids in da bat'room.) Anyway, review "s'il-vous-plait" ta go French on yas. Haha! Anyways, I'se'll let da goil talk ta yas now since she's back…

Wow! You actually said please Spot! I'm so proud! throws her arms around him in a big hug

Spot: Aw, shove off will yas? You'se embarrassing me! An' you'se ain't even me kid sistah! shoves her gently, yet lovingly, off

Anyway, please review, and now on to the SOs! (It's a double-rounder this time. lol)

Shout Outs:

Cards: A'ight. I'll try to get you more soon. Since my extremely eventful weekend is over. (I didn't get home until later Friday night after being out all day. Then I left before ten Saturday morning to go stay at a half-friend's house because my parents were staying at some expensive hotel. And so I got stuck with my half-friend, Marshall, who's hyper and immature and all that jazz, and then I didn't get home until nearly 1 today…) So, hopefully tomorrow! As is my typical pattern!

Nosilla: lol Yeah. I'll do that on y'all sometimes. It's fun. I like writing chapters in rapid succession! And it's just that I know my plotline REALLY well, so I can do that.

Angelfish: Glad you loved the memory! lol I did, but then again, I'm the writer. But personally I think the Spot memory's sadder than the Frisk one. lol Hopefully there'll be a next chapter button soon! Glad you liked the speech! I spent like 2 hours in the car just coming up with the little beauty. And to be honest I wasn't sure it was quite good enough. Anyways, you found out what happened to the groups, and we all know why they didn't have anything happen now. lol Poor Manhattans, they were all inside with Blink's tragedy, and the debate, and everything. Anyway, what ever happened to Runaway? Well, we'll find out soon hopefully. Keep reading and reviewing and I'll keep on going!

Skater: lol I forgive you. I know how slappy happy one can get when it's late. And I'm glad you love it! Makes me a happy Criss-Cross! And I feel like I'm doing my job as a writer!

Bittah: Well, I'll try to get more up soon. As in tomorrow after school. I'm babysitting, but the kids gonna be over here, and I've got more than enough Pooh movies to keep her happy. So, I'll plot her in front of the TV and write. How about that? Happy Bittah! lol And just a sidenote from me to you, you're TOTALLY what keeps me writing. Now I demand more of your fic!

Air: Yay! I'm so happy! More reviews! does twirl with Air YAY! Anyway, glad you like it! I live for the approval of my readers and reviewers! And I'll update as fast as I can for all those of you reviewers! I just had a crazy weekend this weekend, and I wasn't in the house for 12 whole hours over the course of it. And 8-10 of those hours were devoted to sleep, and 2 to yoga, so… Yeah…

Chapter 24 SOs:

Nosilla: Yes! I'll update alright! Just, don't kill me! lol And no, how long DID it take you to read this? I wanna know! And more (at least one chappie, if not two) shall b on its way tomorrow! I promise!

Cards: Yay! I've got you hooked! does happy dance

Air: Yup. I used Tyrant. You sent him into the CC, and he fit in with the Trigger bunch, so, he got used! And I do? lol Well, not this weekend…But anyway I can't believe you shirked studying for a test for me!

Spot: I'se can…An' you'se would too Criss-Cross.

Very true…lol Anyway, I'm glad you did! You're so kind. And because of it, I will make sure tomorrow is a double-update day! WAHOO! And you might wanna watch out not to make Spot mad. lol He's got a MEAN right-hook.

Spot: I'se da King a Brooklyn. What d'yas expect!

You mean to say WERE the King of Brooklyn. You're dead, membah? Anyway glad you like it, and PLEASE review!

Bittah: lol I love 'em too. They're just fun to write. Though, I think I'm done with them now. sad face But oh well. We'll see what all comes later on. And I'm sorry it didn't mean 4 chapters. Wish it had…But it didn't…sighs Oh well. I'm gonna be posting double tomorrow for you all. I've already officially decided that. Plus, Spot's fist helped some on that decision. watches Spot shake fist at her out of corner of eye Heh…Heh… You guys are such slave drivers. lol

Spot: Damn straight!

Okay, well, I'll let y'all go! Please make sure you review! Prepare for double posts tomorrow! Criss-Cross…and Spot

PS- Okay, you may notice that some of the cuss words have asterisk in them. But it's just because that's the way they end up on my site. (Certain words are censored…) And I post there before I post on here, because, well, that's where I do that formatting (bolds, underlines, italics, etc…) because it has to be done a certain way. And I'm just too lazy to fix it before it goes on here…lol