After Nero's 'recapture' the mafia world returned to normal.
Well, as normal as it could be anyway.
Almost two years had passed since then and nothing new turned up in regards to the missing Mezzanottes' location. Nero tried his hardest in that time to recall anything that would help and even if it meant they would have to trust the man who had betrayed them in the past, the Mezzanotte were willing to take anything he had to remember as fact.
Unfortunately in spite of his efforts he couldn't remember a single thing, so they had no choice but to continue with their usual methods. Eventually all options were just about exhausted. All except one, that is…
"Here I am…again." Vero uttered softly after finding himself standing at the monument from before.
Considering it was erected for those who were in fact, very much alive, the whole thing seemed pretty redundant now. Still it was far enough away from all the stress that the blonde now used the area to take a short breather now and then.
In the time that had passed he had grown a little more mature as a young man and as a boss. His height and hair style stayed the same but he'd changed his outfit.
Vero now wore a red v-neck shirt and a pale light green hooded jacket, all under a dark blue pleather jacket. His jeans, belt and sneakers remained unchanged but he did end up getting a small tattoo of a few small blue flames on the inside of his left wrist.
"Where are you though…?" He then continued somewhat seriously, kneeling down while resting a hand on the stone, as if doing so would give him some sort of hint to where they may be located.
"It's been nearly two years already and we still haven't been able to find you." - he paused, sighing with resignation - "Everyone's running low on hope right now. We're not getting any-."
His cell then suddenly interrupted with its ringing, startling him. He quickly straightened up and answered it before the third ring.
"Vero Cavallone speaking," he unconsciously greeted a bit stiffly due to receiving an unexpected call.
The person on the other side of the line replied with, "Oh, sorry Vero. Is this a bad time?"
"No of course not, Emilio. You just took me by surprise is all."
"Well I figured you wanted to know as soon as she was here so you could make your case…" Emilio stated in response, sounding a bit confused.
Vero couldn't believe what his old mentor had been telling him and it could be heard in his voice. "She's actually here? Right now?"
"Yes."
The blonde held his breath.
This was their last chance. Hopefully the rumors about her were true and if they were, he'd be reunited with his family in no time.
"I'll meet up with you as soon as I can." He answered as steadily as he could.
The two males finished their call with where they were to meet and then Vero set out to find Romario to tell him. Luckily it just so happened that his right hand man was looking for him too.
Unfortunately it wasn't good news he had…
"Hey I was just looking for you," the young boss announced somewhat happily as soon as he'd been approached by the dark haired man. "Guess what I-."
He stopped short, his expression falling when he noticed the man's seriously grave look. "…What's happened?" He then asked with concern.
"It's the Alvisio family. They've been sighted in our territory again." Romario answered and Vero immediately let out a frustrated sigh. "There is a good chance that they've only done so to provoke us, so what do you suggest we do?"
"Have we contacted Antonio yet?"
"Yes, he is aware of the issue and has gone ahead to take care of it."
"Let's go meet with him then and sort this out, once and for all."
Romario agreed and followed his boss out to do just that.
On the way there the young boss notified Emilio that something came up and he'd be late to their meeting. He hoped this issue wouldn't take too long but unfortunately it did, even with Antonio's assistance.
Once the Alvisio were taken care of (luckily they 'realized' the error they'd made and left somewhat peacefully), Vero shared his news with Antonio and Romario.
"So, she really really agreed to come here to help us?" The stand in Mezzanotte boss asked with intrigue immediately.
"No, she's here on vacation but I'm hoping she'll agree to help once she hears our case. Sorry I made the move on my own and called in a favor with Emilio." The young boss replied apologetically. "I hope that's okay."
"Just allow me to tag along to your meeting and we'll be even."
The blonde cracked a smile and agreed so together the three of them ventured out to the school Emilio worked at. As soon as they rounded the corner leading to his office, they were accosted by a very short and angry female.
"You're late!" She stated quite loudly, standing in the middle of the hall with her hands on her hips.
Vero could only gaze down at her with a shocked sort of speechlessness, taking in her features.
She stood about four feet nine inches tall and had short fiery red hair with orange tinted ends. A yellow headband separated her bangs from the rest of her hair, which had two parts. The sides which framed her face were longer and ended at her collar bone, and the rest almost covered her reddish brown colored eyes that were glaring up at him from behind dark square framed glasses.
She was wearing an oversized pinkish purple pullover hoodie with dark cycling shorts and brown laced boots that were as tall as the mid point of her shin. Her face was generously sprinkled with freckles.
"And? Sorry but we're here for business," the young boss finally stated, already done with confrontations for the day. "So go on and head back to class."
"Well, I never!" She exclaimed with disbelief. "I've taken time out of my busy schedule out of the goodness of my heart and I get treated as such?!"
"Hey, what's going on out here?" Emilio asked with concern as he came out of his office.
He was ever the same handsome bachelor with barely a wrinkle, but did mature with age and had some stubble which was groomed somewhat into a goatee. He was wearing the same suit jacked and formal shirt with jeans style that one would always see him in.
Vero was the first to answer. "One of your students seems to be confused, stepping in the way of us coming to meet you and claiming we're late."
The red haired girl scoffed at his statement and exclaimed, "Clearly this boy is the confused one, Uncle Emilio!"
'Uncle…?' The blonde thought incredulously.
Emilio noticed the expression his former student was making and stepped in to clarify the situation. "This…fiery yet delightful young lady is my niece, Amura Liane Thompson. She's the one who has agreed to hear your case, Vero."
Because her uncle wasn't clear when addressing Vero, Amura automatically approached Antonio, held out her hand and said respectfully, "In spite of the fact that you did arrive a bit late, it is nice to meet you Mr. Cavallone. I heard you have quite the intriguing case for me to solve."
"It is true that we have a case for you," the proxy Mezzanotte boss stated apologetically in reply. "But unfortunately I am not Vero Cavallone."
"I am." The blonde interjected stiffly, aiming a scowl at her while crossing his arms.
He thought she'd be shocked and start apologizing for her mistake but instead she adopted a sly expression.
"Oh, I wasn't expecting someone so young and inexperienced with women to be a mafia boss of all things." She said almost mockingly with a smirk.
Vero's eye twitched with annoyance before he rebutted with, "Well, if its any consolation I wasn't expecting you to look the way you do either."
He didn't seem to mean it in the wrong way but Amura perceived it as such, frowning and glaring at him. The blonde immediately reacted by glaring right back until Romario spoke up.
"If I may interject, Boss, I believe we should treat Miss Thompson with respect." He instructed calmly. "She is our final hope in finding those dear to us who are missing. She's been called here as a favor from her uncle so she can walk away at any point."
"That's right!" The female in question chimed in.
"But you should also show some respect to your potential clients." Emilio also advised.
"Okay," the red head admitted after grumbling over it for a minute. She then offered her hand to Vero. "Despite our rough start, I'll hear what you have to say."
The young boss paused but shook her hand with determined affirmation. "I look forward to working with you."
"Now that we've reconciled I would like to know," Antonio suddenly stated, sounding as if he wanted to get to business. "How exactly will you go about finding our missing persons? We've tried everything already you see…"
Amura stood silent for a moment, then gave her answer. "It depends. My methods are different for every case, and I usually don't decide to pursue it until I get more facts. Let's start from the beginning though. Could you possibly take me to the first location of interest?"
Antonio agreed and together the group started to move. Before they could step off of the school grounds however, a stranger spoke up.
"Not another step!" He called out.
The group halted and froze in their tracks.
"Yeah, you're not goin' anywhere 'till you give us what we want!" Another more gruff sounding male added.
They all turned to the source of the voices and Vero was the first to utter, "Alvisio…!"
One of them was about six feet with a slim build. He had relatively fair skin and hair. The other was a foot taller, broad and more built, with dark skin and hair.
They both work long dark green cloaks that were pinned closed by a single button on their left shoulders. The only other clothing they could be seen wearing were their dark grey pants and black boots.
"…What do you want?" Antonio asked, being the mediator that he is.
The bigger Alvisio started to answer, then turned to his companion asking, "What is it we want again?" - he paused to think for a moment, then it came to him - "Oh! The r-!"
His companion quickly pinched his ear and quietly told him off. After their exchange they faced the group once more.
"The girl!" the slimmer Alvisio interjected quickly. "We came for the girl!"
"I'm not going anywhere with goons like you!" Vivian rebutted.
"Goon-That's hurtful!" The big guy uttered incredulously.
"That's some really harsh stereotyping missy." His partner added almost threateningly.
"I don't know," Vero stated as he stepped forward, ready to defend if they planned to attack. "I think it rather kind of suits you, considering how you Alvisio tend to act."
"Crap! I didn't notice the Cavallone boss was here!" The slim male half muttered with irritation. "This makes things difficult."
"Then let's just kill 'em all and take what the boss wants." The broad male suddenly stated.
His partner was thrown off by the suggestion but quickly agreed to the plan.
Immediately the two shifted into their offensive stances and split up, going separate ways to possibly enact a pincer move on the group. Vero, the two right hand men and Emilio reciprocated defensively, but before anything else could happen the larger Alvisio member let out an agonizing shout and collapsed.
Everyone turned their gazes to see them and fall and his mysterious attacker revealed.
"Who's this guy with the long white hair?" Amura asked unconsciously as she took in the new arrival's features with a sense of awe. "And does he really have a fricken sword hand?!"
The young Cavallone boss however took one look at him and knew exactly who it was.
"…Squalo?" He uttered slowly. "What are you doing here?"