Act VIII — Chapter 24 "Was It Fun?"
Romano killed his laugh.
"Enough. Separate them."
His men moved fast, yanking Gwen by the hair while she was already half‑gone, and grabbing Léo as he thrashed.
Léo managed to free one arm.
His fist slammed into one of the thugs, dropping him cold.
He slipped into an MMA fighter's stance, dodged, then struck again and again. His punches were heavy, efficient. At 1m93 his frame gave him the edge. He laid several more flat.
Romano and Moretti watched, bored.
"He's not bad, this kid…"
Romano simply drew his gun and shot Léo in the calf.
Léo screamed.
But he didn't drop his guard. Surrounded by the remaining thugs, he kept swinging, taking more down despite his wounds. He could still hear Gwen's sobs. One of the men kicked his injured leg, made him lose balance, and the others beat down on him.
Yet…
He got back up.
He shoved them back.
Save Gwen. That was all that mattered. No calculation, no hope. Just flashes of their time together. Every punch tore his knuckles. Every hit he took head‑on ripped another cry from his throat.
The bosses watched like it was a show. A wild animal they knew was already dead.
It went on a long time.
The thugs, scared, started backing off. Léo, covered in wounds, still stood. He pulled a sobbing Gwen against him like a beast desperately protecting what it loved.
The bosses clapped.
Gregorio, held at gunpoint, had tears in his eyes, powerless to move.
Moretti started counting the unconscious bodies on the ground.
"1, 2, 3… 25 people. You see that, Salvatore?"
Romano blew smoke from his cigar, genuinely impressed.
"You're a real beast, you know that?"
He scanned the street, pointing his cigar at Léo, then grinned.
"You're aware… you've got no chance of walking out of this, right?"
Léo didn't answer. He just kept holding Gwen close.
"It's a shame for a specimen like you. But he's right. We're not in a movie. You've got zero chance, kid. Hats off, anyway. You've got my real respect."
Moretti nodded.
Gwen's trembling hand gripped Léo's blood‑soaked t‑shirt.
"That's enough, Léo…"
He didn't answer, swaying, still holding her.
"I… I'm sorry. I shouldn't have sent your sister away. Compared to her… I'm so weak. She'd have protected you better than I ever did."
"Don't say that crap. I know you sent her away to protect me.
We never should've gotten involved in this. We should've run when we found each other…
It's my fault, Gwen. It's my fault."
"Are you done with your melodramatic little farewell?"
Annoyed, Romano lifted his gun to Léo's head.
Léo didn't look away.
"Not one more move."
A voice rang out in the alley.
Enzo stood there. Alone. Shaking, facing a wall of guns.
In a split second he took in the scene: Gwen in Léo's arms, bleeding out. He swallowed hard, raised his badge.
"Police."
Cold sweat ran down his back.
Romano raised both arms with a scoff, then let them drop.
"What the fuck is this, mierda? You gonna arrest all of us by yourself, little rooster? You thinking your toy pistol is enough?"
Moretti laughed.
"Well, this day certainly doesn't lack surprises. Hehe."
Enzo had already called for backup.
Facing the group closing in on him, he raised his gun… then dropped it.
"Okay, okay… you're mafia, right?"
"Yeah. And what the hell is that to you?"
He trembled.
"Alright, and you? You're bosses?"
The bosses chuckled in unison.
"Yeah. And? You want an autograph for your grave?"
Enzo forced a shaky smile.
"No, no… I just wanted confirmation."
"For what?"
"For this."
He spread his hands wide.
Two thick bolts of pre‑charged lightning tore into the group, dropping a chunk of the thugs. The confusion was enough.
Gregorio knocked the gun out of the man holding him, pushed Gwen and Léo to cover.
Enzo dived behind a wall.
The situation was far from solved, but that brief moment was enough for them to regroup.
Léo, wounded and bloody, panted,
"Fuck… who the hell are you?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing."
"How'd you find us?"
"A tracker."
A beat.
Gwen, in her terrible state, cracked an eye open.
"Enzo… damn it. You really can't stop poking your nose in, huh?"
"You'll thank me later with a drink."
Léo frowned.
"You hitting on my girl right now?"
Enzo glanced back, up and down at him.
"She's into troublemakers, I see."
"Motherf—"
"Will you two shut up?!" Gregorio snapped. "Now is not the time!"
Their bickering was cut short by a brutal wave of gunshots.
"Run!" Enzo shouted.
Léo, with nothing left, couldn't answer. Only Gregorio was still fully functional.
"You, back there—"
"Gregorio."
"Whatever. Help him. I'll try to hold them off."
Enzo slammed a bolt into a streetlight. It exploded, raining sharp glass onto the mobsters below.
Moretti, annoyed, turned on Romano.
"Couldn't you just shoot? I'm sick of chasing them around, I've got businesses to run!"
"Hmpfff, still whining. You're all like that in Chicago?"
"Never mind, I'll handle it myself."
Moretti popped open a car trunk and pulled out a grenade launcher.
"At least now I wont waste any more time."
Léo, Enzo, Gregorio, and Gwen—still in Léo's arms—ducked into an abandoned apartment.
They hid in a dark hallway, backs to the walls, breathing hard, as the thugs swept the street.
Enzo whispered,
"If we wait here quietly, the backup will come."
Gregorio, by the window, watched old Moretti blasting a grenade into every building that looked suspicious.
Blasts shook the facades, shattered windows, rained down concrete and debris.
"We can't stay holed up much longer," he muttered.
Behind him, Gwen stayed paralyzed by pain, pale, riddled with wounds.
Léo, exhausted, was only standing on instinct.
Gregorio and Enzo met eyes.
No words needed.
They silently made a decision:
leave Gwen and Léo to rest, they'd go deal with Moretti and his men.
Without a sound, they slipped out and drew the mobsters' attention.
Moretti spotted them, cold smile spreading, and fired off another volley of grenades, blowing out chunks of scenery and a whole wall.
Gregorio bolted across to the building opposite.
Moretti raised the barrel, adjusting his aim, when Enzo lunged from behind, crashing into the boss.
He grabbed him, electrocuted him hard enough to drop him unconscious.
Moretti's body rolled onto his grenade launcher. The remaining rounds sprayed out, chaos erupting among the scattered thugs.
Seeing the launcher nearly empty, Enzo ripped it apart, yanking out the key pieces, making it useless.
He glanced at Gregorio, nodded once.
"A little cover fire."
Gregorio scooped up a gun from a knocked‑out thug, leveled it, and laid down sustained fire at the remaining mobsters.
Enzo sprinted toward him, head down, dodging falling debris.
Just as he thought he might get out clean, Romano stepped up behind Gregorio, gun raised, aiming— then fired twice.
Enzo reacted on instinct.
He shoved Gregorio aside and unleashed a savage bolt at Romano, forcing him to duck behind the wreck of a car.
Gregorio, ghost‑white, grabbed Enzo and dragged him to a safer spot, away from the line of fire.
"You alright, kid?"
"Uh… yeah, I think, kof… "
A trickle of blood came from his cough.
He opened his long coat, exposing two bullet holes: one high in the abdomen, another lower.
"Damn… " he muttered. "I'm gonna die?"
Gregorio examined him, silent. He bit his lip, ripped off part of his suit, rolled it into a ball, and shoved it into Enzo's hand.
"Press down, damn it, press!"
He grabbed Enzo and hauled him, half‑carrying, toward the building where Gwen and Léo waited.
Blood kept flowing, no matter how hard he pressed.
When Léo saw them, Gregorio hauling Enzo in his arms, he lurched up, staggered forward.
"How bad is it? Where'd he get hit?"
Gregorio didn't answer at first.
He gave Léo a calm, almost gentle look, then shook his head slowly, a quiet "no."
"Fuck… we're never gonna make it."
Gregorio set Enzo down against the wall, next to Gwen.
Gwen, used to pain, immediately felt how bad it was.
All three sat around him.
Léo sank in opposite, hands clenched on his knees.
Enzo managed a faint smile.
"I guess… you won't be able to buy me that drink after all…"
Gwen rested her head lightly on his shoulder, worn out but still there.
"You didn't have to do all this to get a drink from me."
"Really, huh?"
"You're right… I always go overboard."
"You seemed like a solid guy, yeah…" Léo murmured.
"Would've liked to have that drink with you too."
"Yeah? Maybe we were meant to get along after all…"
"Who knows…" Léo sighed.
"You're a brave kid," Gregorio added, voice low.
"Haha… you really think that?"
"You're that work‑obsessed screw‑up we all call that at the station. Nobody doubts you," Gwen whispered, tears in her eyes.
"Hey… Gwen?"
"Yeah?"
"Was it fun being a cop with me?
Did you… enjoy the job?"
She sobbed, choked, then answered,
"Yeah… it was unforgettable."
Enzo's eyes started to cloud.
He blinked repeatedly, like he couldn't find his place.
"Where… where did you go?
I can't see you, I…"
All three leaned in, instinctively, hands on him.
"We're here, Enzo. We're here."
"I'm scared… I don't wanna—"
His breath cut off.
Enzo drew his last breath.
Outside, the boss fired into the air, pinpointing their hideout.
"So, you done crawling around like goddamn cockroaches yet?!"
As Enzo's body went still, shimmering particles gathered around him.
They coalesced, swirled, then shaped into a fragment: a small, pristine white crystal, hovering in the air like a drop of light the size of an open hand fallen from the sky.
Léo instinctively reached for it.
"No." Gwen's voice, tired but firm, stopped him.
She held his arm, eyes fixed on the fragment.
"This one… I have to do it. I can't handle another death."
At that moment, with everything seeming lost, the group doomed, the situation desperate—
the perfectly white, immaculate stone, a fragment of "God Stone" etched with an Egyptian word that meant "energy"—
was claimed by a wounded, broken, but still alive Gwen.
This fragment, once carried by her mother, then by her partner, dematerialized into her hand, streamed up her arm like a river of light, then vanished into her skin, absorbed by her body. She now had, on top of the genetic power factor, a fragment of God Stone of her own.
For a second, the world seemed to freeze.
And then…
At that exact moment,
Las Vegas, famed as the brightest city on Earth,
suddenly went dark.
To be continued.