Gareki had always sort of questioned what kind of luck he had, after everything he had been through.
In this moment Gareki was officially convinced he was cursed.
"Everybody just sit still and be quiet and nobody gets hurt." Said a man in a smiling mask and a top hat mere seconds after bursting through the roof of the train in a bright colorful explosion. "We're not here for all of you."
We? So there was more of them.
Gareki hunched on his stomach between the seats, watching as the masked man's boots walked past him.
"We're here for one specific reason."
There was a crackle over some sort of intercom on the man's person. Gareki couldn't hear everything being said but he thought he heard, "found her."
"Ah," Top-hat strolled forward toward the door that would lead closer to the front of the train.
Gareki gritted his teeth.
Everywhere around him were terrified people. Terrified families. Gareki may have been a thief but he never let innocent people get caught up in it. He did his research. The people he hit always deserved it. And he didn't create collateral damage. But these people…
One girl in particular started to scream, young with short hair and her mother desperately tried to silence her.
Top-hat turned around to look, raising a staff in his hand.
Gareki didn't know why he did it. Suddenly an electric charge had got through the man's hat knocking it to the ground, steaming.
Smoke blew off of Gareki's gun.
The mask twisted in his direction, dark hair now showing where the hat used to be.
"Interesting." The man strolled back toward him. "A shot like that from a kid laying on the ground. Unless of course you were trying to hit me in the head." The man stooped down in front of Gareki. "Weapons aren't allowed on the train you know. So how did you get that toy through security?"
Gareki glared at the mask. "I'm resourceful."
A laugh, and suddenly the man's hand grabbed Gareki's jacket and hauled him up.
"Hey!" Gareki struggled.
"I think you'll make a fine bonus for me." The masked-man said. "You can never have too many friends, and something tells me I'm going to like you, kid."
Gareki grabbed at the man's hand trying to pull it off him. "Shut up!" He snapped and swung his leg out to kick the man in the groin.
The man cried out and buckled and Gareki's feet hit the floor.
He ran towards the front of the train.
"Hey!" He heard the man shouting behind him and soon heard footsteps but gareki kept throwing open the doors and running until he was stopped. This time by a smaller male finger in a cat mask.
"Boss what's going on here?" The cat asked of the clown as he stumbled into the carriage.
"I want that kid," the clown explained. "Take him alive."
Gareki raised his gun faster than the cat could move and shot him between the eyes.
What he didn't expect was for it to reflect off the mask.
The cat man grabbed Gareki's arm.
"A gunman? We don't have a gun man."
"Exactly."
Gareki used his free arm to reach into his pocket.
He pressed a button on the square contraption inside and then put all of his force into shoving it against the man's chest as it started to beep.
"Shit!" the cat let him go to claw at the device and gareki started running again. It was just a flash bomb. But the cat didn't know that apparently.
He heard the flash go off but didn't look back to see what had happened. If he had been smart he maybe would have tried to jump off the train. However, it was going very fast, and Gareki wanted to know what the masked freaks were after.
He reached two carriages up and stopped.
There was a finger standing in front of him in the same flashy attire as the others but this one was very small and female looking, her blond hair dancing around her Fairy-looking mask in bright curls.
However it was what was behind her that really caught Gareki's attention.
Another girl, this one with pink hair, was tied up and looked unconscious, but Gareki still recognized her.
She was the niece of the man he had been going to steal from.
The rest of the carriage was empty, and the masked girl seemed to be watching him without moving.
"Who are you?" a smooth monotone voice asked finally. Gareki shifted his eyes back to her.
"What are you doing with that girl?" He pointed to the niece.
"That is none of your concern." The Fairy stepped forward. "But if you insist on intruding I will deal with you."
Gareki glared and raised his gun.
He didn't make the same mistake as last time. He aimed his gun at the girl's stomach. The surprising things was, she almost dodged the shot. Almost.
When the girl collapsed on the ground, seizing with electricity, Gareki ran forward and scooped up the niece who was tied up behind her.
She was heavy and her weight was boneless so Gareki struggled to hold her but he managed to get the last door ahead of him open and haul then both into the driver's carriage. Then he placed the girl on the ground and reached into his pocket.
He pulled out a handful of bombs. Real ones this time that he had designed himself. Gareki placed them on the hitch that tethered the two carriages together and then he pulled out his detonator.
He shut the carriage door before activating the explosion.
They weren't very strong bombs, but with that many at once the hitch shattered and the carriage Gareki and the girl were in rattled onward which the rest of the train behind them lurched with the loss of momentum and began to slow down.
Gareki breathed a sigh of relief.
"Wow," Said a soft voice from behind him and Gareki turned around. "Look how smart you are."
Gareki eyes widened as the girl, who had been tied up on the floor behind him, neatly unraveled her now shredded restraints and stood up. "Are you with them? With Karneval?"
Gareki's eyes pulled together. "What?"
"I guess not," She sighed walking closer to him. "Too bad. I was only after them. But I suppose you'll do."
And in the next second the girl raised a tranquilizer and shot Gareki in the neck.