Newsboy Academia (Newsies / Sprace)

Chapter II - Birth of a Conspiracy

The common room at Brooklyn House was chaos. Voices overlapped as yelling and arguing echoed off of the walls in what could only be described as absolute pandemonium. It had been the idea of one of eldest boys, Jack, in Manhattan House to hold a meeting with all the powered kids they knew they could trust. They were all at risk and they needed to look out for each other now more than ever. Brooklyn House had been chosen simply because the students there were known for being rowdy- even staff did their best to avoid it. It was the safest place to talk. Every single person in the room was terrified. Though some were unwilling to admit it.

"Enough!" A new voice was added to the fray and it was more than enough to silence everyone else in the room.  Spot Conlon had entered the fray and no one argued with Spot Conlon. He had long since been established as the unofficial leader of Brooklyn and in all honesty, he was the cutest boy Race had ever seen. Not that Race would ever say that publicly - they didn't have a death wish. No, those words were saved for when the two were hidden away together exchanging stolen kisses and infinite 'I love you's.  Almost everyone knew about their relationship but Spot had never been big on PDA. Race respected that. Race respected everything about him, actually. Even his powers - whilst underwhelming - were enough to impress. Spot essentially had built in knuckledusters. His knuckles and only his knuckles were all but indestructible. Which mean that when he threw a punch, it hurt like hell.  Though, the rest of him was very much vulnerable. "If we were here to squabble and scrap, I'd send you all outside. But for once, it seems like Kelly's got something important to say."

The look Jack gave Spot as he rose to speak was very much one of disdain. There had always been a tension between the two. Race didn't exactly know why and they had never bothered to ask. It wasn't their business so why would they? Both Spot and Jack could fight their own battles. "Look, we'll all know what happened to Barney," Jack began, pausing at the small shouts of outcry at the mention of Barney's name, "And we can all pretty much guess why. If they were able to work out exactly what he was from a simple apology then we're all at risk. Even the smallest slip up and we're practically screwed." That kept everyone quiet as the tension in the room grew by the second. "I-I don't know how we deal with whatever this is but we deal with it together, alright? We look out for each other."

"So you want us to form some sort of secret superpower club or something?" Someone spoke up. Race was fairly certain his name was David. They didn't know him overly well excluding passing him in the hall a few time. The closest they knew to anything about his powers was apparently he was insanely good at maths and probably the most logical out of the lot of them. "Like that'll solve all our problems?"

Jack just smirked. "You heard Davey! It seems we have our own secret society!" Race watched in amusement as Davey went to speak before being drowned out by the multiple voices beginning to chatter around him. "All we need know is a name." The room came alive with suggestions.

"What about the Losers Club?" came the voice of Specs, their resident bookworm and human dictionary. A slight hopefulness filled his voice only to be quickly diminished.

"What is this? A Stephen King novel?" It was Albert who spoke up this time. "What about the 'Society to protect powered students'? It gets right to the point!"

Now Race themself spoke up. "Like that's even remotely subtle, Al. We might as well wear badges saying 'Look at me! I have superpowers!" They snorted.

"...Newsies." A voice came from the back of the room. The room became silent as all eyes fell on its owner. Romeo. Race couldn't help but smile as they watched their little brother. "We were learning about the newsboy strike in history. They were just fighting for their rights and what they believed in, right? Like we are and the name isn't that bad. Maybe they'll just think we're history nerds?" Romeo's abilities may have been to charm people for brief periods of time but he didn't need that charm as he spoke.  Everyone seemed to be in agreement.