Story froze, panicking when she was separated from her sister as the crowd pushed on.
"I'll meet you backstage!" called Spark as she was carried away in the mob.
Story didn't know where to go or what to do in this crowd. Out of the corner of her eye she saw David standing on the stage. He didn't see a police officer coming at him with a baton.
"Davey!" Story jumped in front of the officer's swing, getting hit full-force in her right eye. She fell on top of David, unconscious.
"Story!" David cried. She had taken a swing for him. She started bleeding a lot. David knelt beside her; he had to get her out of there.
The police officer wasn't finished yet. He grabbed Story's arm and tried to yank her away from David.
Before David could stand up and fight the man, someone beat him to it. The officer was thrown off the stage by another man.
"You ok?" The man asked. He looked young, younger than David's parents, and he had dark hair and kind eyes. He looked familiar to David, but he couldn't remember where he had seen him before. In the newspaper? "I heard the commotion from my house across the street."
David nodded his head.
"I'm fine, but Story…" He trailed off.
"She needs medical attention, now. I'm going to take care of her—" The man said, starting to pick up Story. David hesitated and stood in front of her. "You don't know who I am, do you?"
David shook his head, he stood closer to Story.
"I'm Medda's husband, Mark Gallagher." David realized where he'd seen this man before. At a baseball game with his father and Les. Mark Gallagher played for The Giants.
Chase made it into the dressing room a few minutes later
"Oh, Chase. You're ok." Spark hugged her as she closed the dressing room door.
But Chase was preoccupied. She escaped the riot completely unscathed, but she shaken from the violence she'd seen. She'd watched Racetrack being dragged unconscious by two police officers after they knocked him out.
Chase sat down in the vanity chair in a daze. The younger newsies were huddled at her feet. Some cried while others just stared blankly like she was doing. What happened to the right to a peaceful assembly? Chase remembered learning about the constitution in school. The newsies hadn't done anything wrong. They hadn't gone into the theatre uninvited. They weren't causing trouble outside, so why were the authorities getting involved?
"Uh, Chase." Spark tried to get her attention.
"Yeah I'm fine," Chase flared. "but those boys aren't. They're getting killed out there." She paced about the room. Everyone stared as she tried to think of a plan. The sounds of the commotion: boys screaming, breaking glass, punches being thrown, confused her thinking even more. "We have get help." she realized she couldn't get the police since they were part of the problem here. "I'll get an ambulance- or the mayor. Or Teddy Roosevelt himself- Nobody stop me now." she said with a fierce glimmer in her eye and opened the back door of the dressing room.
"No, Chase! Don't go!"
Chase ran along the back of the building. Turning into an alley, she came face to face with a fat, but weasel-like man and Mr. Snyder. She took a step back.
"Well, well," said Snyder coming closer. "Rosie, it's been so long. I see since we've last talked you've chosen an honest career. A newsie." he practically spat the word. "You know, I could take you back to your life of comfort, but we have some unfinished business to attend to first." he smiled evilly.
Chase nearly screamed. She turned and ran the other way, there was almost nowhere for her to escape to. Spotting a fire escape ladder at least a foot above her head, she leaped into the air and pulled herself up. Snyder almost caught her ankle, but she kicked him in the face.
Mush made it out of the building before the bulls got into formation. He was outside the circle of horses. Mush backed up, watching everything happening, he bumped into someone. He turned, putting up his fists.
"Oh, Mush." Spot said, with realization. "I almost killed you." The two of them shared an uneasy laugh for a second when they heard a scream from above.
Chase was on the roof, being pursued by Mr. Snyder. Mush was knocked to the ground by a powerful hit to the back of the head. It was a familiar feeling punch and he heard laughter. Laughter that he heard almost every day. It was the Delancey Brothers. Mush jumped to his feet.
"I got your back," he said to Spot. "Help Roselia!" Mush then went to take on both of the Delanceys at the same time. He'd seen Jack do it hundreds of times. He just hoped Spot could catch his sister.
Mush was doing a good job to hold off the Delanceys, but somehow Oscar got a hold of a police officer's night stick and started beating him with it. He received a forceful blow to the stomach, he couldn't breathe or see from all of the pain.
Chase was running out of places to hide on the roof. She came to the edge.
"Chase, down here!" called Spot, 15 feet below. Her brother was being soaked by two dark figures that she couldn't make out behind him. "I need you to jump, Chase."
She looked behind her. Mr. Snyder was catching up. But the way down looked so far. "I promise I will catch you." Only the look in Spot's eyes convinced her to jump.
Spot held out his arms to catch Chase. But just as she jumped, Morris tackled him to the ground, knocking the wind out of him.
Chase didn't land in Spot's arms, she hit the ground hard with a sickening crack. Her vision went entirely black for a second. Her entire body had felt the hit to the ground, it was like a vibration that traveled through her. Chase's left leg felt numb and heavy. She tried to stand up, but she almost collapsed. Someone grabbed her arm. She thought it was her brother or Spot but she didn't recognize the dark eyes. Dark eyes with a wicked glint in them.
"And who is this cute little Doll Face?" said the boy.
"Don't touch her." said Mush weakly. He was on the ground behind the boy, clutching his stomach.
"If you don't get your lousy mitts off of her, Delancey, I swear I will-" Spot started. Morris had Spot's hands pinned behind his back.
"You'll what? I'm not gonna hurt her." He reassured them. "I just wanted to do this." Oscar pinned Chase's arms to her sides and kissed her hard on the mouth. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't move. Chase felt her legs give out and she felt dizzy. She collapsed in Oscar's arms. She was so weak she couldn't get away from him.
A whistle sound was what stopped Oscar. He dropped Chase and ran to follow the crowd of police who had caught Jack Kelly. Morris followed as well.
A/N: Oh, Oscar Delancey, you're a pig... Alright now that I got that off my chest, I was looking at my old "Hello, Newsies!" notes and I found out that Mark Gallagher was another character that I brought in from my crossover idea, baseball career and all. Actually, I had Mush and Chase's backstories decided early on too. In the original version Story was paired with Kid Blink and Spark was pared with Racetrack.