Sorry it took me a while to get back to this story. I'm pleased that this story seems to be getting more popular.

Well, anyway, it's time for the update.

Disclaimer: I do not own Baccano! I do own my OC, Alice.

Chapter 4

1931

Alice knew who was in front of her. It was the Russo family's best assassin. Ladd Russo.

How did she recognize him off the bat with her lousy memory?

She saw him back in Chicago just before she left pulling off a job. His work was something that wasn't easy to forget.

There was no denying that this guy was good. Good and psychotic! She had to disappear from his line of sight just to make sure that he wouldn't see her. She could probably outrun him, but they were on a train. She wouldn't be able to go far.

The instant she recognized him, she dived under a table. She prayed that if she brushed against someone's leg, they would ignore it and not bring attention to it.

Luckily, she got out of the way in time for him to see the dead white suit (probably one of his cronies) and then look up to see the black suits. She sighed as she peeked out from under the table. She dove just before he saw her.

But, she should probably wait until she was sure she wouldn't be caught.

She watched as Ladd walked up to one black suit, use his gun to kill the black suit behind that one and watch as the third one escape through the door at the other end. After the black suit pulled out a knife and tried to slash Ladd, Ladd started wailing on him like he was a professional boxer. Yep, she made the right decision in hiding.

As the black suit was being beaten to a pulp, two more white suits came in and she took the opportunity to leave and try to find Claire. She knew that he could help out here.

On her way out, she heard something about a Huey Laforet, but she didn't see how that was important and made it out the door.

What she didn't know was that Czes was the only person that saw her leave during the commotion.

…..

1924

Alice felt pain as she went down. More specifically, she felt pain in her leg.

She slid on the ground a bit due to the momentum she built up. She tried to get back up, but her leg refused to respond. She looked at it to see blood pouring out.

Her eyes widened. She was going to die. She knew it. They were going to kill her.

She sat up as best as she could and tried to scoot back away from everyone, but the thugs were faster.

The leader (at least she assumed he was the leader) that she stole from grabbed her by her hair and forced her up against the wall again. He grabbed the front of her shirt again when she was off the ground.

She was in pain. She had never been shot before and she wasn't accustomed to this kind of pain. She stared at her would-be murderer through half-lidded eyes.

He was smirking.

"Now you can't run off on us. I'm going to make sure you pay for biting me."

He pointed his gun at her face.

Firo was at a lost of what to do. He didn't know that they had a gun on them. He wanted to help her. He had to help her.

Finally, he clenched his knuckles and did the same thing she did before. He ran forward and crashed into the thug's legs, causing the both of them to fall over.

Luckily, the gun wasn't fired in the fall.

The guy dropped the girl and she screamed in pain as she landed on her bad leg.

Before Firo could recover from the fall, the gun was turned to face him.

"I've had enough of you, punk!"

"You may want to think twice before firing that here."

Both the guy and Firo turned around to see who was talking. Firo recognized the man with brown hair and glasses as Maiza. He was part of the Martillo family.

Apparently the thug knew who he was as well because he blanched and turned the gun away from Firo.

They both got up as the guy started to try to explain what happened.

"It's not what you think….we were just trying to put an end to this little thief over here and this kid got in the way. I thought that he was an accomplice, so I…"

"He is not an accomplice. And if I recall, you aren't really known for your honesty. I suggest that you leave and not cause these kids anymore trouble if you know what's good for you."

The thugs ran off, not wanting to piss him off.

Maiza looked down at the boys.

"Are you two okay?"

Firo and Claire nodded.

"But she needs help. She got shot in the leg."

"She?"

Maiza looked up and saw that there was, indeed, a girl who looked about Firo's age with light brown hair and clutching her leg against a wall.

He moved forward to see the damage her leg took, but when she noticed him moving closer to her, she panicked and tried to scoot away as fast as she could. Her efforts became futile when she felt her back hit a dumpster.

Maiza walked right up to her and crouched down to her level. Fear was apparent in her eyes. She was afraid of him.

He looked down to see the blood coming out of her leg. Of course, he already knew that she was bleeding pretty badly due to the blood trail she left behind.

He reached out a hand to her.

She flinched at this and closed her eyes. She didn't know what he was going to do, but she was afraid. She didn't know how to react when people noticed her other than run away. But she couldn't run with her leg like this. She didn't know what to do.

She didn't know what she was expecting, but she was surprised when she felt someone pat her on the head.

She opened her eyes and looked up at the man, confused. He was smiling.

"There's no need to be afraid. I'm not going to hurt you. If you let me, I will get you a doctor to look at your leg. You want to be able to walk again, right?"

To be able to run again was more accurate, but she did want her leg to get better.

Slowly, she nodded.

Maiza then carefully picked her up and started carrying her bridal style.

He looked over to the boys.

"You can come along if you want. She's your friend, right?"

Claire shook his head.

"Not exactly, but she did save Firo once from the thugs that were about to kill her and from being hit by a car. We think that she's also the Ghost Thief."

Maiza looked surprised, and then looked down at the girl. It was a bit unbelievable that this little girl could pull off so many robberies without being noticed. But, after Claire brought it up, she seemed to panic and squirmed a bit in his grip. Apparently, it was true.

He chuckled a bit when he thought about the reaction Mr. Gandor would have when he found out that this little girl had been pulling off multiple thefts under his nose. It was bound to be hysterical.

She looked up at him suspiciously when he chuckled. Of course, she didn't trust him completely. But, he wasn't going to hurt her.

"Don't worry. Everything will be okay."

She looked at him warily. Then she felt tired. She looked down and saw the same boy she had seen so many times before along with a red-headed kid. The red head was looking at her curiously and the other one looked worried.

Why?

She couldn't help the question. No one had ever given a damn about her before.

Why would they help me?

Claire could see the question in her eyes. She seemed to be asking him why. Why would they help her?

He briefly wondered how long she had been by herself for her to question someone's motive to help her. Then again, it would probably be the smart thing to do given some of the people you would see in the area.

"What's your name?"

She eyed Claire warily for a few moments after he asked the question. Right when he thought that she wouldn't answer…

"…..Alice…"

He watched her until she passed out. Apparently, she was tired.

…..

1931 Chicago

Alice sighed.

She had been in Chicago for a few months now. She took the opportunity to check out a new city since she couldn't afford another train ticket and there hadn't been any trains that went all the way to New York in a while.

Chicago seemed to be interesting, but it just wasn't home. She liked Manhattan better.

She was walking around on a rooftop near the train tracks, thinking about how to get back home.

Unfortunately for her, more and more people seemed to be able to notice her from time to time. Maybe it was because she was older? She didn't know the answer. Her unintentional "invisible" thing still worked most of the time though. Maybe she could get away with sneaking on the train that was supposed to be nonstop to New York? That was the perfect chance to go home as long as she didn't slip up.

Her train of thought was lost as she heard someone crying below her. She looked over the edge to see that three guys had one guy at gun point. The kid seemed to be getting the ever loving crap scared out of him with the way he was bawling and begging for the men to put away their guns.

There wasn't a fire escape on this side of the building, so she couldn't go down to help him. That was one thing about her that never changed. She could never stand and watch someone get killed or mug or whatever if she didn't think that they deserved it.

That got her into trouble on several occasions, but she had always made it out okay.

She reached into her pockets to find the little bags of powder she used to blind her pursuers.

The kid should consider himself lucky that she decided to restock on these yesterday.

She looked over the edge, waiting for the right moment to drop them.

The kid was now on the ground and being kicked. Apparently, these guys killed some friends of his. She could understand that he wanted to avenge them.

Suddenly, one of the guys raised his gun again.

Right at that moment, Alice started throwing the bags at them.

They were nailed right in the heads.

"What the hell? Who did that?"

"Leave the kid alone!"

This only pissed the men off, as you could imagine.

"Why you little bitch! You're going to regret acting against the Russo family!"

That figured. Of course these guys were part of the Russo family. The same family that wanted her head on a stake for robbing them blind multiple times.

Of course, they only had a vague description on her, so she didn't think that she would be recognized anytime soon.

Jacuzzi, upon realizing that the men were going to shoot someone, started panicking all over again. A stranger helped him and now she could get shot!

However, before anyone could do anything, a giant hand reached out and crushed the gunman's hand.

Alice couldn't see all the details in the dark, and was kind of glad she couldn't from that crunching sound that was followed by screaming. Ouch.

She could see the outline of the man that destroyed the gunman's hand. He. Was. HUGE!

She had never seen anyone that big before! Damn!

Well, anyway, shortly after that, the other two guys dropped dead and then something hit the injured man in the head. She could have sworn that she saw something flickering on whatever hit him.

She figured it out as the kid got up, ran over to his group, and screamed, "RUN!"

Shit! It was a bomb!

She turned around and got as far away from that side of the building as possible. Lucky for her, when the bomb went off, the explosion stayed on that side of the building, so she was safe.

She sighed in relief. Apparently he didn't need her help after all. She shrugged.

Now, about that train home…

….

1932

Sigh.

It had to rain now, while she was out. She didn't even have a jacket on her either. This sucked.

She was looking into a store window next to the newspaper place, debating about if someone would raise a fuss if she went in, grabbed an umbrella, and left, when a car pulled up in front of the newspaper place.

Curiosity getting the better of her, she watched as a girl climbed out with an elderly man and a black woman. It looked like this girl lived in high society. But she didn't have that snobby look that most rich people had.

In fact, that face actually looked somewhat familiar…..

That thought quickly disappeared as the door to the Daily Days slammed opened and two guys in dark clothing stormed out. Of course, they didn't pay her any mind as they walked right passed her. Which proved that she was still invisible to the world because she stole from the Runorata family on more than one occasion. Oh well.

"Hey!"

Alice turned around to see the girl walking up to her. She blinked. Okay. That pretty much said that she had met her before, but where?

"Sorry, do I know you? My memory is terrible at the best of times."

"I'm Eve Genoard. You helped me one time about two years ago….."

Then it had all clicked into place.

"Oh yeah! I remember. Sorry about that. As I said, my memory's terrible even at the best of times. Well, nice to meet you, Eve. I'm Alice."

She raised her hand for Eve to shake and she took it.

"So, what brings you out here in such weather?"

"I'm here to find out something about my brother. Aren't you cold or something? It's raining but you don't even have an umbrella."

Alice shrugged.

"Eh, I'm fine. Besides, it's not like rain can hurt anybody."

At that moment, a car driving by suddenly started sliding against the wet pavement and crashed into a parked car.

"….I stand corrected."

"I hope he's okay."

Eve looked a bit worried about the driver, but the guy climbed out of his car, looking shocked.

"He's moving. He'll be fine."

"Well, do you want to come inside with us? Maybe the rain will let up soon…"

"That's okay. I actually have somewhere I need to be soon. I'll see ya later."

Alice walked off waving, leaving Eve to hopefully get want she wanted from the people at the Daily Days.

….

1931

The Gandors and Firo were waiting at the Gandors' place. Luck had been told by some of the men he sent out that they had found Alice's kidnappers and that they were bringing them in.

Soon, they were going to find out what they did with her and where she was.

Firo was hoping that they wouldn't have to wait too long. Ever since Maiza took her in, she had grown onto him almost like a sister. It was the same for the Gandors.

She was also the best thief in Manhattan. If they ever needed her expertise, they just had to bring up with her and she would do it free of charge.

She would turn down any money they offered her because she said that she owed them.

Firo tried to think of how she owed them, but all they did was take her in.

Right then, the door opened and three men were being dragged in by the Gandors' men.

They were shoved to their knees on the floor in front of them.

Luck walked up to the one in the middle.

"You know who we are, right?"

Scared as hell, the man nodded.

"Then we'll get straight to the point. You orchestrated a kidnapping of a young woman named Alice. We would like to know where she is. We would also like to know who tried to ventilate Firo here."

Firo stepped up, which only made the kidnappers panic. After all, he had been shot in the head. He wasn't supposed to be alive.

They were so scared, they looked like they were about to shit themselves.

"H-h-how? How are you alive? I saw you get shot!"

Luck stared down at him threateningly.

"That's not what we want to hear. We want to hear where you took her and why she was taken."

When they still didn't answer, Luck called out to someone.

"Hey, Mr. Tick. We may have some people here for you."

"Really?"

The moment the men saw Mr. Tick peek out from behind a door holding a bloody pair of scissors, they spilled everything.

"G-g-g-gustavo hired us! He said that she was wanted for stealing from the Runorata family. He also said that she had ties to the Martillo family. He said that it would send a message to the Martillo family if we took her and threw her in front of a train!"

Firo's eyes widened, but he did his best to remain calm.

"So, what did you do to her? Did you take her directly to the train tracks?"

"Yes! We went straight there and as soon as we heard the train, we dragged her out, but she was awake and escaped from our grasp."

Firo felt relieved, but that didn't explain why Alice wasn't back yet. She had been kidnapped two days ago.

"So, did you see where she went?"

"We tried to grab her again, but she was fast and kept dodging us. Since we were at a curve in the train tracks, the train was going by slow when it was passing. At one point, she jumped onto the train and crawled onto the roof."

So, she caught the train they were trying to kill her with. That explained why she wasn't back.

"Where was that train heading?"

"We don't know, but there isn't much of a point to do so. More than likely, you will need to check along the tracks if you want to find her."

Luck's eyes narrowed.

"And why's that?"

"Because she's dead. We shot her on her way out."