Disclaimer: The Get Backers belong to Rando Ayamie and Yuya Aoki, but I can still daydream.

CH. 2

Ginji looked up at Hevn sighing but doing his best to smile.

"Sorry Hevn-san, Ban-chan's not here right now."

"Not here? What do you mean not here? I tried calling his cell phone but it was busy for a while and now it's off, so I figured he'd just be here."

"Yeah, well he's out for tonight."

Hevn looked at Ginji with a concerned stare.

"Did you two get into a fight or something?"

"Eh, well no, not exactly. I mean sort of…"

"You are obviously troubled Gin-chan. Why don't you tell me what happened."

"I don't even know Hevn-san. It wasn't like a fight or our usual playful arguing. He was just in a bad mood…"

"Which is nothing new." Hevn interjected.

"Yeah, but he got this funny phone call. And, at first he seemed a bit upset at who ever was on the other end but, then later told me an old friend of his wanted to meet up tonight."

"Ha! Ban has an old friend!"

"Right, but that's not how I said it. Still, my mentioning it didn't help. And, I wanted to go along to make sure he was really going to be ok but, that only made him more upset."

"Hmmm." Hevn seemed to ponder it all together. "Well Gin-chan, it's not like you really have to worry. Ban-kun is a big boy, he can take care of himself ya know. AAAAAAnnnnndd….well if you are really worried at him still being upset, you could always take this job yourself to earn some big money. I am sure the mention of new money would turn him right around again."

"Hevn-san," Giinji groaned. "Ban-chan's not that shallow."

"Really?" Hevn and Paul both seemed to chime in at once.

"Yes, really." Ginji responded a bit defensively. "Besides, Ban-chan and I have a sort of…well rule about jobs."

"About the 'S' again?" Hevn continued.

"Yeah. We aren't supposed to go on a job without each other. I know it sounds silly, but it's for safety… and well a lot of reasons."

"If its about safety, why not invite Shido on the job."

"Awww, Hevn-san, that would only make Ban-chan MORE upset with me…"

"Right. Maybe that was a bad idea. But, I don't think you taking the job is."

Ginji sighed, seeing that he was getting nowhere. Hevn only took that as an opportunity to win Ginji over.

"Ok Gin, maybe Ban-kun isn't quite so shallow to only care about the money. But, I am sure it would make him happy. It would be like a surprise."

"Well, that probably would make him pretty happy to not have to worry about money again, after I screwed up our last pay check…."

"Or, think of it as you showing him your worth."

"You think I need to show him my worth?" Ginji whimpered looking more miserable.

"Ah, no no. That's not what I mean. Just…"

Ginji looked up at Hevn again with a weak but playful smile.

"This job must have a pretty big commission for you Hevn-san."

"Eh, hee hee hee." Heven gave a faulty laugh as she saw that Ginji had caught her.

"Then why aren't you asking Shido?"

"Look Ginji it's a complicated job and it involves the government. Well, not directly, but we'll get to that. Anyhow, they asked for the best and I gave them the best two recovers I knew. That said there was a lot of preparation for what had to go into this mission, and I have already invested you into it."

Ginji raised his hands in protest.

"Now wait a minute…you did what already?"

"I said I have already handled some of the necessary preparations for this mission, and the rest we will have to take care of quickly."

"But, I didn't agree to do it!" cried Ginji beginning to get nervous.

"Oh but it's a wonderful idea. Besides, if you really need a partner, I can be your partner via radio. So, more like your navigator, but it'll be just as helpful." Hevn said now getting up and pulling on the blonde's arm.

"Ah, ah wait Hevn-san!"

"Ginji, you said yourself that the extra money would probably make Ban cheer up, right?"

Ginji stopped and looked at Paul who was conveniently pretending to occupy himself with an old newspaper again.

"Fine, Hevn-san. I'll do it."

"Great! I'll tell you the details on our way to pick up our supplies."

Ginji gave Paul a somewhat defeated wave as Hevn continued to lead/drag him out of the café.

Paul waved back and put his newspaper down. This generation of getbackers still had a lot to learn in his mind. But, he of all people knew that some lessons you just had to experience for yourself to understand them. Paul picked up his newspaper and continued to pretend he was not a little worried for the boys. He wasn't sure who he was trying to fool though.

The job sounded easy enough; well at least according to Hevn. The building Ginji needed to break into was not heavily guarded and had a basic security system. It was a simple three step process: shut down the system, retrieve the desired item, and get out. No problem, just some minor contingencies. Like the object could not be exposed to any level of electric fields.

"What?!" Ginji exclaimed as he heard Hevn mention the, in her opinion, slight setback.

"And you chose me for this job?"

"Hey, I wasn't done explaining. I told you earlier that the government was involved right? Well, they do their background checks. They probably have more info on you and Ban-kun than you would like to know about. But, they trusted my recommendations and prepared something to help you with your electricity.

"So you're saying I can still use my electricity?"

"Nope, no at all." Hevn said a bit to cheery.

Ginji sighed. This was getting way too complicated already. He silently wished Ban was with him.

"Fine, then maybe you should tell me more about what I CAN do?"

"Here," Hevn said reaching for the keys to her apartment. "Come inside and I'll show you."

Once inside Ginji looked around at the mass of equipment she had on her kitchen table. A lap top, antennas, some transmitter looking things Ginji had never seen before, and wasn't sure what they were, and then in the corner of the room hanging on the coat rack was a long black rubber suit and bike helmet. With a smile on her face Hevn pointed to the suit triumphantly.

"Tada!"

"Hevn-saaaaannn…" Ginji wailed a worriedly. "You want me to…"

"Wear it? Yep! It's a fully insulated rubber suit to protect the item we are to retrieve from any possible currents you could let off. It's got gloves, boots and with the helmet on you will be completely covered. Not only that you'll look GREAT!"

Ginji let out a small groan. He was pretty sure this was way worse than some of the crazy costumes Ban had made him wear.

"Hey, I told you I was prepared didn't I? Now look I even went to all of the trouble of borrowing it from the government agency that hired us. Its fully functional and the helmet has a radio transmitter that will let me talk to you trough the mission."

Ginji still eyed the form fitting, uncomfortable looking, thing questionably.

"Speaking about the mission here are the full specks. You are recovering a rock no bigger than a baseball that contains certain unnatural elements. Its classified name is the "Tear". Apparently whatever it is, is thought to have fallen from space. However the government was not willing to admit its existence and connection to space in order not to scare the public or attract other countries attention. However druting the cover up, there was a major blunder, and somehow it was transfered to a local lab as a normal study. The lab there has found out that it reacts to high electric fields and so now the government wants to get the Tear back before the lab finds out any more. Apparently it could be potentially very dangerous. Now, this job is still going to have to be very secretive, so if anything goes wrong, we are supposed to have no ties to the government, got that?"

"And just what is it that you are worried about going wrong?"

"Well I am guessing that high energy fields could create some reaction like an explosion. But, that's why you got the suit and a strong hold box that should also help protect it once you retrieve it. And then there is the other problem. Another country has also found out about its whereabouts and has hired a famous requisition service to get it first."

"It's not Akabane is it?"

"No, no. He only transports."

"And murders people for fun!" Ginji cut in, "How can you be sure, if he heard I'd be connected to this job alone he wouldn't come?"

"Hey calm down, I am your partner here for this one right? So first of all I already looked into who the rival recoverer was, and its no one we know. It's someone by the name of Terror. And second, no one should know it is you on this job. It's top secret, so I went ahead and took the liberty of making a code name for you."

"A code name?"

"Yes, on this mission you are the great and valiant recoverer….Malice."

Ginji groaned for what felt like the fiftieth time that day. "Malice?" Hevn was sure getting into this, way toointo it. Ginji had no idea she could be such a drama queen. He did suppose it was good he didn't know the other retriever though. That would mean he wouldn't accidentally run into Shido, or the dreaded Hishiki. Still the name Terror didn't exactly sound comforting. And this recover wasn't as much as a recover but as Hevn had mentioned before,from a requisition group. And thieves usually had less morals or sense of fair play.

"WHAT?! Its tough and kind of romantic sounding. Besides you should be grateful, Ban's was going to be Smarm."

Ginji coked his head but decided not to inquire further.

"Trust me it fits him. Now suit up, we have to get ahead of the other recoverer."

Ginji took the suit to Hevn's bedroom and changed as quickly as he could. Well, as quickly as getting into a rubber suit would allow. Once fully covered he looked into the mirror. Instantly his eyes went wide and he turned chibi form, running out to Hevn while flailing his arms and yelling protests.

"Hey, wait. What? Sheesh. Calm down I can't even hear you."

There was a click in Ginji's ear as Hevn put on one of the transmitters headsets, and then he could hear Hevn's voice through the speaker in the helmet.

"Ok, Gin-chan. Tell me what's wrong."

"I LOOK RIDICULOUS!"

"Now Gin-chan." Hevn couldn't help but laugh a little, "I know Ban has put you in worse outfits, remember the school girl outfit? Besides, we have a job to do and you have to act professional. Would you rather blow up in massive explosion?"

Chibi Ginji shook his head and then returned to normal.

"There, you look great! Just like the X-men from the movies!"

Ginji sighed. "Fine, and how am I getting there?"

"You'll take my motorcycle."

Under Ginji's visor he knew Hevn couldn't see the doubtful frown he was wearing, but it was probably for the best. Ban had insisted after some troubles several missions back that Ginji learn to drive any get away vehicles they had available to them. And that included the ladybug and a crash course in riding Himiko's motorcycle. Hevn's bike had a little more power to it, but if he was supposed to act professional he figured he'd just have to handle it.

Driving to the lab had gone somewhat smoothly. There were a few rough patches as Hevn's motorcycle was much heavier on turns than Himiko's had been. The trip was also easier with Hevn as his navigator, but it also meant she was always clamoring in his ear to hurry up, or pick up his speed. As much as Ginji was getting more comfortable with the bike as he rode to the lab, he was still not willing to push his luck.

"Ok, Gin-chan. You should see the building coming up on your left. To avoid early detection, it's probably best to park you bike near the road and continue on foot."

"I see it." Ginji replied as he slowed the bike. "So do you want me to cut out the security system?"

"No, of course not. The Tear is in the basement level and well secured, but we can't take any chances. If you were to short circuit anything it still could send out a strong electric field. The client gave me access to the labs system, so I should be able to cut it off from my computer here."

Ginji shook his head a little. This was sure a different recovery than he was used to. But, he would follow Hevn's lead. As Hevn disabled the security system Ginji easily took out two of the guards outside.

"I thought you said there were four guards?"

"Yes Gin-chan. Three outside and one should be inside."

Ginji looked around cautiously as he entered the building with the guard's keys. The other guards had been no match for him, even with out using his electricity, but he would still have to be careful.

The inside of the lab was eerily quiet. Ginji followed Hevn's instructions through the long stark white hallways that had rows of doors with little windows. He could not help but have the creepy feeling of being watched and actually hoped to run into the other two guards soon.

"Okay. At the end of this hall there should be steps leading to the basement. My blue prints end there, so once inside the basement you will have to find the Tear yourself. It will probably be in a secured safe. In the front pocket of your backpack is a list of possible combinations to the safe. But once you open it you must quickly put the tear in the protective strong hold box I gave you. To be safe I will be silencing our radio signal until after you have secured the tear."

"Right. I am at the basement door now Hevn-san."

"Switching to radio silence. I will talk to you again in five minutes. Good luck!"

Hevn leaned back in her chair. The recovery was going smoothly so far, too smoothly.

Usually Ban and Ginji had some sort of major challenge to face in a mission. She laughed to herself, maybe it was just Ban's bad luck with money that had always been holding them back. Still, the five minutes of silence seemed more like five hours. She hoped Ginji would be safe. As much as the Get Backer's and Hevn's relationship could be viewed as almost hostile at times by others, the boys had always meant a lot to her. She would hate to have something bad happen to Ginji under her watch and dreaded the very idea of dealing with Ban afterwards. Hevn shuddered and pushed the thought away. She had great faith in Ginji and she would just have to hold onto that for another long three minutes.

Ginji closed the lid to the strong hold box with the Tear now safely inside. He then let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. That wasn't too bad. Though he wasn't sure just how safe this little box really was. He saw nothing special about it, as he placed the box back in his back pack and closed the door to the lab's safe. He turned to head back to the basement door when his senses picked up something he hadn't noticed before. Ginji quickly dove to the right as he avoided a heavy blow that left a large dent in the safe.

"Ah!…" Ginji tried to pry his eyes away from the mangled safe as he avoided the next attack.

Hevn clicked the radio back on only to hear the sounds of breaking glass beakers and smashing wood. "GIN-CHAN! What's going on?"

Hevn could hear Ginji panting and what she hoped was the sound of him avoiding the next few attacks.

Ginji braced himself against the wall to regain a good fighting stance. He glared up at his attacker and his eyes went wide. "SHIT!"

"GINJI! Hey! What's happening?!" Hevn was worried now. Ginji was not the type to usually swear and she felt helpless on the other end.

"The other recoverer … is Ban-chan!"

To be continued….

Note from the Author:

A huge thanks to my fabulous Beta Iksugui!!

Also, thanks for the reviews. I am always happy to see the story is being enjoyed.