I've wanted to do this AU for a good long while and now, lookit. I have. I have read up on Cosa Nostra in books as well as online in addition to watching documentaries and I will be the first to admit that I have taken a bit of creative license with it. Hope you'll enjoy it anyway and feedback is always appreciated!
Chaos surrounded them from all corners. Curses were flying; walls were crumbling; the screams of terrified people...
She fought her way through the thick clouds of smoke, clutching the bundle of blankets she held tightly to her chest.
"I won't let them win, little sister. I'll get you out of here. I won't let them hurt you and take your power..." the blonde woman looked down at the crying baby; a cute little thing with tufts of vibrant red hair and bright blue eyes, who paused in her crying to look into her sister's hazel eyes.
"That's it. Everything will be okay..." the woman kissed the baby on the forehead and smiled as she cooed, temporarily pacified.
She continued to move quickly.
"Oh Princesses!"
Chills went down the woman's spine as she heard those voices calling out to them.
"Oh no! The Ancestresses!" her eyes widened as she quickened her pace even more.
"We're coming for you, Princess Daphne!" one of the voices cackled.
"And little baby Princess Bloom too..." another voice echoed through the wrecked corridor.
"Never." Daphne muttered under her breath.
The corridor got darker and darker as she ran, lit only by dim, flickering torch lights.
A ghoul leapt out at her from the darkness and Daphne adjusted Bloom to hold her in one arm, a blast of flame erupting from her free hand to incinerate the ghoul.
"Hello Princesses!" a third voice almost behind her screeched.
Daphne whipped around to see the three ghostly looking hags that had all but destroyed her home.
Hers and Bloom's home.
"Hello Tharma, Belladonna, Lysliss..." Daphne kept backing up the entire time, holding Bloom even closer as she began to cry again.
She couldn't blame her baby sister. The amounts of toxic dark magic radiating from the trio pursuing them made even her feel ill...
"You know what we've come for, Daphne. Hand over the child." the one who appeared to be the leader reached out a pale, bony hand.
"Never! Flaming Aura!" a blast of fire radiated from Daphne, blasting the witches back.
"Can't... transform into fairy mode and fly... Need to make a portal..." she panted, a brief outline of wings appearing on her back and shimmering away just as quickly as they came.
Raising a hand in front of her and moving it in a circle once, a golden portal appeared.
"You first, of course." Daphne kissed Bloom on the forehead and lightly ruffled her hair. "I'll see yo..."
Daphne was cut off as the dark purple light of a curse hit her in the back, passing straight through her chest.
"No..." Daphne crumbled to the floor.
The witches were here. They'd caught up to them. She heard their laughter...
The portal wasn't yet closed. If she didn't try, then they'd follow her sister...
Drawing on her last bit of strength, she slowly raised a hand to close the portal behind the baby.
"I'm... so sorry, Bloom..." Daphne's last thoughts before her world went dark were hopes that her precious little sister would find a family to love and care for her...
"Bloom?"
The red haired teen girl grumbled as she tossed and turned beneath the nice, soft sheets.
"Go away, Ray. I'm trying to sleep here..." she muttered.
"You'd better get up. Pops is having some of his friends over and he wants us out of the way..." the young, dark-haired man shaking her awake spoke.
"Goddamit, Raymond DeLuca! I said leave me alone!" Bloom turned on a side and put one of her many fluffy pillows over her ears.
"Okay then. Fine. Be like that." Ray turned as if to leave.
Bloom heard his light footsteps going away from her large, four-poster bed, across the large, dark-grey carpeted floor and the sound of the polished doorknob clicking.
Then suddenly, she was dragged out of bed by her feet, most of the sheets going with her.
"Ouch, Raymond! What the hell is wrong with you?!" she exclaimed angrily, her piercing blue eyes taking in the sight of him chortling at her sprawled out on the floor, her hair a total mess and tangled in more knotted bedsheets than their father had business dealings.
"What a way to start the morning, huh?" Ray continued to laugh.
"Not funny, goddamit! You're such an ass!" Bloom seethed.
"And you cheat on simple math tests."
"That was no simple math test. That was the math test from hell." she muttered.
"Besides, is this any way to treat a lady?"
"You're not a lady. You're only my sister."
"Har-har. You're such a comedian, Ray. Really. I could laugh myself to death over your sheer comedic genius."
Ray rolled his eyes and finally helped his sister unravel herself from the mess of sheets.
"Let's go, sis. It won't do to keep the Boss waiting, whether you're his kids or not..."
"You're right. But don't expect any potential payback to be forgotten."
Ray snorted. "Wouldn't dream of it."
"Buongiorno, you two. How nice of you to finally join us for breakfast." the large, olive-skinned salt and pepper haired man greeted them from his seat at the head of the mahogany dining table.
"Buongiorno, papa." the two younger people answered in unison.
"Sit and eat. I'm sure you have some exciting plans today that you need energy for." a woman with dark hair, greying at the temples that was pulled up into a bun and dark eyes behind oval shaped glasses put a giant bowl of fruit salad in the middle of the table.
"Yeah, I'm meeting up Dave and Tony in Times Square. We're gonna catch a show today." Ray spoke as he loaded his plate with the various breakfast items on the table.
"Nice. What about you, my little principessa?" the man turned to smile at her.
"Gonna go-" Bloom ignored her brother's objections at having the platter of ham slices snatched away from him. "- to karate class, then I was thinking I could go to the park to do some sketches." she paused to load up her plate and then handed the ham platter back to her now glaring brother. "And since I have the rest of the day free, I wanted to go visit Aunt Ness out in Queens." Bloom shrugged.
"Good. Tell your aunt I said hello. Haven't seen Vanessa in a while." the man said.
"We really should invite Mike and Vanessa over sometime, Victor. Without discussing the... family business for once." the woman turned to him.
Bloom and Ray looked at one another.
"Never you mind that, Giada. I got enough on the schedule today. The other Bosses are comin' over for a meetin', remember?" Victor said.
"Victor!" Giada hissed. "Not here, not now!" she inclined her head towards their children, who were watching them with rapt attention.
"It's not like me, Ray, Dave and Tony don't know that pops is a Mafia Boss already..."
"Victor DeLuca: the big boss of the DeLuca crime family. One of the five Italian Mafias runnin' New York State..."
"Enough outta you two. Once you're done eating, I want you two outta here. I got work to do, so don't hang around too long."
"Yes sir!" the two teens answered in unisons between mouthfuls of food.
"And be careful out there. You two and your brothers are off limits to any of the Families tryin' to get to me, but someone could decide to be a wiseguy and break the rules. Not to mention certain other groups." Victor warned as the two finished and got up.
"We understand that, pops. You tell us this every day! When we're going to school, out with friends, to go shopping..." Bloom counted them off on her fingers.
"Get outta here, you petulant child!" Victor narrowed his eyes at her.
"I'm not a child. I'm sixteen!" Bloom scowled.
"You will always be our little baby princess." Bloom scowled at these words from her mother.
Ray snickered and Bloom turned her scowl on him.
"Now go. Out." Giada waved a wooden cooking spoon around threateningly.
Bloom's eyes widened at the sight.
"I'm outta here, I'm outta here, ma! No need for that!" she bolted out of the room.
Once Ray was gone as well, Victor and Giada burst out laughing.
"Oh, Giada. I knew there was a reason I married a woman from the Old Country..." he chortled.
"Why? Because I can keep rambunctious young people in line?" Giada raised a neatly shaped eyebrow.
"No. Because you are a strong, formidable woman. And it does help that when I met you in Venice that I thought you were the most gorgeous specimen of a woman I ever laid eyes on. You still are now. Unlike me, you've gotten better with age, like a fine wine." Victor smiled.
"Flattery will get you nowhere, Victor. Now, let's get ready for the meeting, yes? I refuse to look bad in front of the other Mafia wives that are coming." Giada strode out of the room.
"It's only Caruso and Ardovini bringing their ladies and they ain't nothin' special..." Victor commented as he followed his wife.
"Whoo! That was fun!" Bloom shook free her hair from the messy ponytail she had it pulled in as she changed into her regular clothing and out of her karate uniform.
"You would enjoy beating people up, huh?"
Bloom closed her eyes and took a deep breath, fiddling with her black belt before turning to face the hated voice.
"Mitzi."
"Bloom."
The black haired, grey eyed, bespectacled girl looked her up and down with a look of obvious disgust that the redhead could not miss.
They might be the only two left in the changing room, but Bloom wasn't about to kick her ass here.
No matter how much she was sorely tempted to...
"Get outta my way, Matthews..." Bloom growled.
"What are you going to do if I don't, DeLuca?" Mitzi smirked. "Get me whacked? Oh wait. That's your dad's job..."
Bloom's fingers twitched. Mitzi's expression looked so smug, that she thought it ought to be fined.
"You know nothing about my pops..." she hissed.
"Rumour has it that he isn't what he seems... Who knows what they- the public, that is- or the world even, found out that he was part of the Mafia?"
"Such unfounded accusations, Mitzi. One would think that you were... xenophobic even, with such stereotyping of Italian Americans." Bloom smiled sweetly. "And you know how the public feels about such things these days, don't 'cha?"
"What Italian do you know that has such naturally red hair that looks like a bunch of carrots?!"
"Stereotyping again, Mitzi. And I already know I'm adopted so don't try that route. My parents chose me, at least. Yours, unfortunately, were cursed with your existence from the unfortunate moment that your parents did the horizontal tango and conceived you." Bloom shook her head. "I feel sorry for your little sister, having to grow in the same place for nine months as you after you polluted it. Plus she had to put up with your bullshit afterwards. Now if you'll excuse me..."
Bloom shoved Mitzi out of her way.
"I have plans and fortunately, they don't involve you being in them." she smiled to herself as Mitzi sputtered.
That was definitely the highlight of her day.
Art.
Bloom always held a genuine appreciation for it.
Especially drawing.
Once, when she had expressed the desire to go into a career field that she could be creative in, they encouraged it.
Her parents, that is. Her brothers David and Anthony were indifferent, but Raymond teased her all the time about it..
"Maybe you'll be like a modern lady Michelangelo, eh?" her pops smiled.
"Or she could go into fashion design. I know several people in the field both here in America and back home in Italy..." her mother commented.
Either way, she didn't care. As long as it didn't involve math on a daily basis. Or history for that matter...
Today, she'd decided to come to Central Park to do her drawing.
Normally, she'd do more... fantasy oriented drawings.
Fancy castles, plants and animals that were so whimsical that they could be in a Disney movie...
People with wings...
Some of them- mostly female- had smaller wings and simpler clothing while with others, the wings were bigger and they, as well as the clothing were more elaborate and detailed.
Just like the creatures... fairies in her dreams...
She smiled at the thought as she arrived at her favourite spot in the park.
It was secluded; hardly anyone seemed to come to this area of the park.
Just the way she liked it. She was better able to concentrate when she was alone.
Bloom was just about to unpack her art supplies and work on a drawing she'd planned of some blonde woman in a mask, when she heard the explosion.
"What the hell was that?!" her pencils dropped from her hands in surprise.
Most normal people would run away, but Bloom wasn't normal and never had been.
She ran towards a cluster of trees and peeked through the intertwined branches.
No way.
No way in hell was she seeing what she thought she was seeing.
Some girl around her age with long blonde hair in two low ponytails wearing a skimpy orange top and shorts outfit with matching knee-high, high-heeled boots fell out of some glowing, warp-y, circle thing in the sky.
And were those wings on her back?
Yes.
Yes they were, since she was flapping them somehow and was freaking flying.
"Holy shit..." Bloom's eyes widened.
A large, yellow creature, followed by a large, blue one and several smaller scarlet ones with sharp looking teeth (all of whom were equally ugly) came out of the glowing, circle thing as well.
The blonde girl swung some silver staff thing with a circle with... spikes inside attached to one end and it glowed bright gold, sending out some blast that knocked the creatures back.
"Get away from me, you creeps! You can't have my sceptre! SOLAR SWEEP!" she swung the staff... sceptre again.
Another blast from the staff.
Awesome...
But then Bloom noticed more of those little scarlet creatures with the sharp teeth sneaking up behind the girl.
And with what was one of her most impulsive acts in her sixteen years of life so far, she bolted forward.