Heros of New York

Chapter One: The Newsies

Jack Kelly had finally gotten back home to the lodging house after a long day of fighting his arch-nemesis Snyder the spider as his alter ego 'Cowboy' (They called him that because his disguise resembled a cowboy) The Lodging house was a secure location for other superheroes who needed a place to stay. It was run by two of the nicest people Jack knew Mr. Kloppman (Who mostly ran the joint) and Mrs. Medda (Who mostly trained and looked out for all the supers staying there)

Jack walked in to see Mrs. Medda in the hallway talking to Nick Myers (His hero name was Mush)

"Jack welcome back!" She wrapped him in a hug.

Nick told him hey and left him and Medda to talk.

"How'd it go kid Snyder the Spider giving you much trouble?" She asked.

"Eh today was exhausting but he's been on the down low a mostly lately" Jack shrugged walking towards the kitchen he was starving, and Mrs. Medda followed him.

"Well perfect! that's one of the things I wanted to talk to you about"

Jack winced he knew what that meant, Mrs. Medda was always trying to get him to help out other heroes with their problems.

"Who's the wimp who can't take the job now?" Jack rolled his eyes.

Medda stopped him at the doorway to the kitchen.

"He can do his job fine Jack! Ed doesn't just have one nemesis like you to fight. The Weasel has those henchmen the Delancy brothers"

Jack sighed, his friend Ed Higgins (alias Racetrack because of his super-speed) did have a lot on his plate.

"Fine, I'll help him. Where he at?" Jack said grabbing an apple off the counter.

"He should be back soon. Oh and one more thing!"

Jack sighed he loved Medda but he was really tired and just wanted to sleep.

"Two new kids came in today, and I thought you could help them out?" Mrs. Medda asked.

Jack looked up at her confused, they hadn't had any new kids in a while.

"New to powers or just new to around here?" He asked.

"Powers. Seems things are starting back up again" 

They stared at each other in silence for a moment It had been three years since the last sign of a new super (Or as they liked to call them Newsies)

"I was starting to believe it wasn't possible anymore" Jack shook his head.

"Me too kid, but here we are" Mrs. Medda through her hands up.

"Where's the poor newsies?" Jack asked her.

She led him upstairs to the boys living quarters and told him their names were Davey and Les. As he opened the door he saw all the other supers crowded around the newsies, one looked about seventeen same age as Jack, and the other looked around ten maybe nine. He pushed through all the other boys.

"Yall can call me Jack" He spit on his hand and offered it as a handshake, the younger one did the same, but the older brother held his hand back from shaking it.

"That's disgusting," He said looking disgusted.

"Well nice to meet you too," Jack said sarcastically.

"I'm sorry that was rude of me, I'm David and this is my brother Lester" He apologized.

"Well nice to meet you. What powers ya got?" Jack asked them sincerely this time.

The boys shrunk back clearly nervous to say.

"I know things are hard but you're safe here, we all have powers it's nothing to be ashamed of" Jack nudged them.

"I... have telekinesis and he has super strength and invisibility," Davey said.

The room went silent for a minute as everyone stared at Davey and Les in shock before erupting in arguing and questions.

"He has two?" Jack shushed everyone pointing at Les.

Davey seemed to get nervous by everyone's reactions and pulled Les close to him.

"Doesn't everyone?" Les asked innocently.

"What happened when you first noticed your powers?" Jack asked trying to grasp some kind of understanding of what was happening.

"We were just getting ready for bed and Les started to disappear and reappear" Came Davey.

Jack took a step back and started to rub his jaw.

"What's wrong I thought you said you were all supers?" Davey asked noticing Jack's puzzled expression.

Jack knew there wasn't much common knowledge out there about supers since supers weren't even allowed, so he decided to try and walk the boys through it as best he could

"Supers with more than one power are extremely rare and powerful, and we haven't seen any new supers for a long time" Jack shook his head in shock.

"Cool!" Les said excitedly.

"Can we please just go home to our family?" Davey asked sounding exhausted.

Jack felt horrible these kids actually had a family, and their powers just appeared out of nowhere. For most supers, their powers would appear after experiencing trauma but these kids seemed to be ripped out of a perfectly fine life.

"I'm sorry, but if Medda could find you then so could the law, or worse someone like Snyder" Jack scowled as he said the man's name.

"Snyder the Spider? I thought he was supposed to be a hero?" 

Les looked so disappointed, it hurt Jack to know how badly people had twisted the idea of supers so badly to where a man who used technology to hurt people with powers was considered a hero.

"Trust me that man is no hero if you ever see him run!" Jack warned Les.

At that moment their conversation was cut short as Ed Higgins showed up at the doorway and collapsed to the ground.

"Ed!" Jack yelled as all the supers ran over to him.

As Jack reached him he saw the boy was covered in blood, he had been shot in his side. Jack picked him up and carried him over to his bunk.

"Go get Medda Albert!" Jack yelled at the boy with super speed.

Albert ran downstairs.

"Is he ok?" Les asked working his way through the crowd of boys.

"He'll be fine Les! Davey get him out of here! I'll meet yall downstairs in a minute!" Jack yelled at the boys.

Medda and Albert ran into the room as Davey took Les out.

"What happened!?" Medda asked as she reached the bunk.

"I almost had the weasel when Snyder appeared and shot me" Ed mumbled.

"Hold on I got you!" Mrs. Medda got the bullet out and used her healing powers to heal the wound.

"Jack, I thought you had this under control!" Mrs. Medda fussed at him as Ed was almost completely healed.

"I thought it was! Somethings not right Medda" Jack shook his head trying to make sense of all the weird things that had happened that day.

"I want both of you to work together for a little bit ok" She ordered them.

They both nodded.

"Aw no..." Medda said as her face turned to worry.

Jack knew that face all too well. On top of healing powers, Medda was one of the very few supers to have more than one power. She was psychic, so she could read people's minds, but she also knew when one of her supers was in danger. And Jack knew that that was what her face meant at that moment, someone was in trouble.

"What's wrong Mrs. Medda!?" Jack asked worriedly.

Ed sat up, and all the Supers who had dispersed had started to crowd around again.

"It's David and Lester I think their family is in danger"