Faked witty disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Note: I'm not really proud of this chapter, but I hope to make up for it in the next one. Circéus out.

Daisuke's eyes widened at the sight. The large, riveted and riveting tunnels, the slime and grime, the damp darkness... It was the coolest place he'd ever been! His partner always had the best ideas. Which was a given since he was, well his partner, and Daisuke always had the best ideas. A part of his mind tried to point out the chocolate bunny incident, but Daisuke just shoved it aside so he could cram half a candy bar in his mouth. He handed his partner the other's half, eliciting squeals of delight from the digimon.

Chibimon munched on the sweet with a pensive look. Once he was done licking his lips, hands, and the various other body parts where chocolate had managed to land itself, he spoke:

"Hey, Daisuke, what are we looking for exactly?"

"Sewer crocodiles," Daisuke answered.

He pointed the flashlight down another tunnel. A few leaves hanging off a broken branch glistened back at him.

"And what's a sewer crocodile?" Chibimon asked, unadulterated.

Daisuke had to pause for a second before he remembered his partner didn't know much about Real World biology.

"Remember that show we watched last week? 'Hazardous Gators'?"

"Oh! oh! You mean the one where that guy got eaten alive?" the digimon squee-ed gleefully at the memory.

"Yeah, that one," Daisuke nodded.

He stalked down the tunnel. They had now left the main sewer and were slowly making their way down in the labyrinth that was the secondary drains.

"So that was a crocodile? The thing that looked like an Airdramon, but with legs and no wings?"

"Actually, it was an alligator, but nobody in their right mind can make the difference," Daisuke confirmed.

I bet Jun could, if only to spite me, he though by himself.

"And so, sewer crocodiles are alligators that lives down here?" Chibimon gave their surrounding an appraising look. "Doesn't look very practical to me. There aren't that many people to eat down there," he commented.

Daisuke down at that comment. Chibimon did have a point. What did sewer crocodiles eat, anyway? He'd always dismissed these kinds of question as pointless, but now that the answer might end up including him, he wasn't so eager to ignore them anymore. He'd always thought that rats were plentiful down there, but so far he hadn't even heard the typical skittering that would announce their presence. Not that Daisuke had any idea what such a skittering sounded like in real life, he had seen enough movies still to have a good mental representation of it. But so far, the only thing around that had made any noise was Chibimon. THe digimon chose that very moment to speak.

"Hey, Daisuke?"

The sudden breach of silence startled Daisuke and he jumped aside, forcing his partner to grab at his hair to avoid falling down into the disgusting water. Daisuke breathed deeply and wiped the sweat from his brow. Chibimon giggled at his partner's antics

"What?" he grumbled, angry at his own failings.

"You've got your 'What if' face," the digimon pointed out.

Daisuke could hear and identify every single word in the utterance, but for the life of him, it made absolutely no sense.

"Excuse me?" he asked with a shake of the head.

"You're worrying over nothing," Chibimon explained. "What happened last time something tried to eat you that shouldn't have?"

Daisuke though over to his first coming to the Digital World, when he had met the lizard. He remembered the huge grey dinosaur Taichi had called a Monochromon. V-mon had saved him back them. And he had saved Hikari too. Daisuke smirked.

"Of course. Nothing can happen to us as long as we're together!" he exclaimed.

Chibimon nodded enthusiastically.

"Yup yup. Whatever come sat us, I can always evolve and kick their sorry, scaly or whatever ass!"

The digimon struck a dramatic pause on Daisuke's shoulder. At that point, Daisuke's Digivice gave a loud flash of light.

"Chibimon evolve!" the digimon announced. "V-mon!"

When the process was over with, V-mon was sitting on his partner shoulders, fist raised. He looked down at himself, blinking.

"Too much chocolate," Daisuke stated.

"What? Not fair!" the dragon digimon complained.

He knew what that meant. He wasn't allowed to touch the candy until he had devolved. He was so busy pouting over the lost snack that he almost smacked his face when Daisuke decided to slip into an even tighter drain.

"Daisuke! Watch it! You almost knocked me down back there!" V-mon protested.

"It's because you're taller, V-mon," Daisuke retorted. "The ceiling is closer."

"Oh..."

"And thinking of it," Daisuke continued, "you're heavier too. Mind coming down? I mean, as much as I like having you 'at hand', so to speak, it's not exactly comfortable either..."

V-mon looked down at the disgusting, thick layer of slime on the ground and gulped.

"Do I really, have to?" he squeaked.

Daisuke rolled his eyes. He reached up with his arm and grabbed his digimon by the shoulder. V-mon squirmed as he was brought down to the ground.

"Come on, it's not going to open and swallow you!" Daisuke scowled him.

Of course, when he finally let his hand go, V-mon dropped in the slime and, with a slurping sound, vanished. Daisuke blinked for a second. He then crouched down, disregarding the disgusting sludge, and reached down in the hole hidden under it. He fumbled around for a few seconds until a pair of hands appeared next to his arms and grabbed at the ground. His partner, sputtering and hacking, pulled himself up, slowly turned toward him and glared.

"Oh, it's not gonna swallow me, right," he said.

Daisuke stared at his partner. V-mon was dripping a greenish slimy substance that made him look like a mayonnaise disaster. He glared at the boy with his hands on his hips. Daisuke knew he shouldn't. He knew that would bring the worst kind of revenge unto him. But Daisuke just couldn't resist it. He exploded in laughter.

V-mon scowled and pounced. There was only so much humiliation he was willing to accept, even coming from Daisuke, and the boy knew it, so he didn't even have to feel sory about it. V-mon grabbed his barely protesting partner in a full nelson and brought his face down to...

Squish

Daisuke didn't quite realize what was happening until his face was slammed into the sludge. He flailed his arms arms around, all to no avail.

That was when the rats came stampeding down the tunnel.