Act IV – Chapter 12: "Desperate Situation"
The sirens of the reinforcing units were already screaming in the distance.
Gwen and Enzo stood still, frozen on what had just happened. Enzo still on his feet. Nothing made sense.
Gwen sighed, calmly reattached her colored streaks, then walked toward Enzo, who still had her at gunpoint.
"What are you doing?" Enzo blurted, confused.
She locked her gaze with his.
"You say one word to your colleagues, and I wipe you all out."
He hesitated. For an instant. Then his eyes swept the room: the bodies, the blood, the bullets in the walls.
He finally lowered his gun.
"How are we going to explain a scene like this?" he asked.
Gwen looked around, almost amused.
"There are no cameras here. And we live in a world where the supernatural exists; haven't you seen the news?" she said with a sideways smile.
Enzo sighed.
"You just committed murders…"
"And that bothers you?" she replied, tone neutral.
He looked at the corpses, clenched his jaw, saw the crying mother again, and the bruised girls who had just escaped.
"They deserved it…" he said finally.
Gwen raised her eyebrows slightly, surprised.
"Uh. You really are a cop, huh?" she said, with a teasing air.
"Let me go," he replied, embarrassed.
They started walking toward the exit.
"Are you one of them?" Enzo suddenly asked, without looking at her. "A survivor of the Zero Program."
Gwen's gaze froze.
"And you? You're not one of us."
Silence.
They were still walking, but now there was a different distance between them.
"I see only one possibility," she continued softly.
She turned her head toward him, her gaze sharpening like a blade.
"What do you know… about the 'Stone of God'?"
A shiver ran up the back of Enzo's neck.
"I…"
"Alvarez! Fuck, what the hell is going on?!" the inspector shouted, entering the club, busy escorting the rescued women.
The moment shattered like glass.
Gwen and Enzo were suddenly dragged back into the role of cops in the middle of a carnage scene.
Enzo improvised without even taking the time to breathe.
"When we got out, we heard gunshots," he explained to the inspector. "We tried to come back with Harper, we forced the door… but when it gave way, everyone was already dead."
The inspector scanned the scene, pale.
"Everyone dead… by what? This guy literally burned on the spot? By whom? … Another type like that, with powers… We're walking on our heads, Alvarez."
He shook his head, disgusted.
"I can't believe it's come to this. Before, we had criminals, gangs, nuts, okay. Now we have people burning, exploding, disappearing, shooting lightning… And we're supposed to do what, with our little badges?"
He vaguely pointed outside with his chin.
"Did you see the protests these last few days? The processions glorifying NoName since the 2019 leaks… In 2028, the movement has taken on insane proportions. They brandish their symbols like they're saints."
He continued, bitter:
"And even the religious are losing their minds. Sects are multiplying since the Battle of Los Angeles. Everyone's talking about a supposed new Jesus filmed there… Miracles, resurrections… We're drowning in collective delirium."
He let out a long sigh.
"The world is going completely mad. At least you're unharmed. That's something."
He turned on his heel to rejoin the victims being escorted outside.
Gwen stood a little apart, arms crossed, watching the terrified women board the ambulances. The blue and red sirens reflected in her eyes without really sticking.
Enzo approached her.
"Aren't you afraid they'll talk?" he asked in a low voice.
"These poor women are more drugged than alive," Gwen answered. "They'll mostly try to forget."
One of them, lying on a stretcher being pushed toward the ambulance, turned her head slightly toward Gwen. Her dry lips barely moved.
"Thank you…" she whispered, almost without sound.
Enzo saw the scene. Gwen saw it too.
Gwen didn't answer. She just turned her back and walked away without a word.
Enzo watched her leave, troubled.
She wasn't as cold as she pretended to be.
With his back to all of that, out of sight, Gwen discreetly wiped her eyes.
It was the first time someone had thanked her for this.
For massacring monsters.
A few moments later, in the car, Enzo was driving.
Gwen, in the passenger seat, watched the city roll by through the window, silent.
The silence grew heavy. Enzo finally gave in.
"The Stone of God…" he said, a bit awkward. "What is it, exactly?"
Gwen didn't answer immediately. The engine purred, the only sound in the cabin.
"You touched a strange fragment, didn't you?" she finally asked.
Enzo tightened his grip on the wheel.
"Yes."
"What's your ability?" she pressed.
"I absorb electrical energy… and I can throw lightning," he answered. "Like just now."
Gwen stayed silent for a moment, gaze lost outside.
"So that's how you use it? It's the same ability as mine," she said.
Enzo turned his head toward her, surprised.
"Is that possible?"
His throat tightened.
"Yes. Fragments of the Stone have abilities similar to ours. But from what I know, there are no duplicates."
"I don't understand…" Enzo insisted. "You have a fragment inside you?"
"No. I was born with my abilities."
He frowned.
"Then how is it that we have the same ability?"
Silence settled in, even heavier.
Gwen finally spoke, voice lower.
"Fragments can be recovered at a bearer's death."
Enzo felt a shiver run up his spine.
"What does that mean?"
His gaze was hard, but something behind it trembled.
"There's only one possibility… The one you absorbed… is my mother's."
"I'm sorry," he said. "My condolences."
Silence.
Awkward about the situation, he tried to change the subject.
"Hum… So, Gwen Harper, is that your real name?"
"No."
"What's your real name?"
Gwen blew out a short breath, almost amused.
"A real name?… I don't have one."
The car continued moving through the night.
On the other side of the continent, in New York, the car braked in front of the gigantic luxury industrial building.
Before opening the door, Leo turned to the driver.
"You posted the men where I told you yesterday, right?" he asked, tone flat.
"Yes," the driver replied. "Everything's in place."
Leo took a deep breath, then opened the door and stepped out.
He stood still for an instant, eyes closed, facing the gigantic luxury industrial building towering before him. Glass facade, polished metal, guards in suits, black cars lined up. All eyes turned toward him.
A young guy 1.93 meters tall, alone at the front, escorted by a hundred men behind.
Inside, from the bay window of his office, the New York mafia boss had seen the cars arrive. When the entrance door opened, he expected to see Don Javier in person.
Instead, he spotted a kid, in his eyes.
He let out an amused sigh.
"This is a joke…" he muttered to himself.
He left his office and walked down calmly. Staff stepped aside in his path, forming a silent corridor.
He stopped in front of Leo, scrutinized him from head to toe, unhurried. Then he pulled out a cigar, lit it with an irritating calm.
"Madre mia…" he said, a smile on his lips. "You must have done some serious shit to be sent to your death like this."
Leo didn't answer right away.
"Leo, representative of the Javier family from Las Vegas," he finally said, voice steady.
The boss nodded disdainfully, still puffing on his cigar.
"I think you didn't get it, young man," he whispered, blowing smoke in his face. "I said you're not leaving here alive."
Around them, the guards readied themselves.
New York's men straightened, hands near their weapons.
Leo's men tensed, ready to make the smallest spark degenerate.
Leo scanned the scene, right, left, then returned to the boss.
"Do I get a last word?" he asked calmly.
The mobster gave a small laugh.
"I'm listening."
Leo looked around, with a slight disdain, then lowered his eyes to the man, shorter than him.
"I think you've got something on your tie," he said.
The boss narrowed his eyes slightly, looked down. A small red light was pulsing on his tie, perfectly centered.
He sighed, falsely amused. Then he opened his arms, as if welcoming a show he hadn't expected.
"Well… welcome to New York, my friend."
To be continued…