A/N: And now, it's Chapter 4!

The next day had arrived, and Vladimir, Dati, and Hovis were walking around File City.

"All right, remember what we discussed," Vladimir said. "We're here today to learn about The Heartbreaker's whereabouts, and maybe help anyone who can't find their items. Any questions?"

"What do we do if we catch The Heartbreaker in the act?" Dati asked.

"It's not likely," Vladimir explained. "Judging by all the stories I've heard, The Heartbreaker only strikes when he knows he won't be caught in the act."

Hovis nodded. "Yeah, if I were a thief, I wouldn't want to pull those stunts when everyone can see me."

"But, if we did catch him..." Vladimir began, "...we would probably have to call for help. I mean, I can still fight, but I don't want to risk hurting anyone by accident because of my blurred vision."

"And I'm an artist, not a fighter," Hovis added. "And no offense to you, Dati, but an In-Training versus an Ultimate? Good luck with that!"

"Yeah, that would be a little too difficult," Dati stated.

With that, the three digimon walked towards the candy store.

"If those tracks are still there, we might be able to find out where The Heartbreaker ran off to," Hovis stated.

"That's right," Vladimir replied. "But we must be careful. If we end up intruding at the wrong time, we may have to fight him. So if we see him, he doesn't see us, and he isn't stealing from anyone, we'll have to sneak away."

"Good plan," Dati said.

As they continued walking, they began hearing a voice asking, "Where is it? Where is it?" At first, they paid it no mind. But then, the noise eventually got closer and closer.

"That digimon must be having trouble," Vladimir noted. "I think we should-"

"Vlad! Look out!" Hovis cried.

Vladimir gasped and crouched down, putting his paws over his head. A small silver UFO flew right above him, stopping in front of the trio so a pink alien wearing a blue flowery shirt could emerge.

"Whoa, I totally need to look where I'm going..." the alien mused as he hopped out of his UFO and Vladimir stood back upright. "Sorry, broski, I didn't mean to almost hit you."

"That's all right," Vladimir said. "Were you having trouble finding something?"

"Oh, yeah," the alien replied. "You see, dudes, I love surfing. You might say it's the only life for me. Know what I mean? Anyway, earlier this morning, I was heading down to the beach to catch some waves, and I don't know what happened, but somehow, I suddenly felt, like, totally sad. And I don't mean just bummed out; we're talkin' serious woe-is-me stuff here. When it fizzled out, I was all like, 'What the heck, dude? That doesn't happen to me! Like, ever!' So I looked around, trying to see what happened, when I saw that my board was gone! Bummer, man! I've been looking for it ever since. So yeah, any of you seen my surfboard?"

"I haven't seen any surfboards around here," Dati said. "Have you guys?"

"Nope," Hovis stated, before something occurred to him, and he pulled out his notepad. "Wait a minute, you suddenly got depressed?"

"Yeah."

"Did the thief leave a piece of paper with a broken heart on it?"

The alien nodded. "Yeah. It's in my UFO."

"Maybe The Heartbreaker took it!"

"Who?"

"He's a thief that's been going around town," Vladimir explained. "In order to steal valuables, he distracts his targets by using an attack that makes them feel depressed."

"Yeah, and you're not the first target, either," Hovis said. "He stole some supplies from Sheepmon, one of the sweets store's owners. And if that's not enough, he also stole a gift that a friend of ours wanted to give to his girlfriend!"

The alien looked shocked. "Whoa! No wonder they call him a heartbreaker! Well, you know something? If he wants to break my heart and stop me from surfing, he's got another thing coming! Those waves are calling out to me. They're saying, "Hey, Vademon! Surf's up! You know you wanna go...' and I'm like, 'Do you even have to ask?' I'm gonna surf those waves. I don't care if I have to use a rental board. Heck, even if I can only surf on a two-by-four, I'm still gonna surf! He may have taken my favorite surfboard, but that doesn't mean he wins!"

"Well, if we find it, we'll let you know," Dati replied.

"Sweet! Thanks, little dude!" Vademon said. "Now, if you don't mind, I gotta catch some gnarly waves! Cowabunga!"

With that, Vademon hopped back in his UFO and flew away.

"That was...interesting," Vladimir said. "Hovis, did you take a note on this?"

"Sure did!" Hovis replied, showing his notepad to Dati. He had made a list of The Heartbreaker's targets and the items he stole from each. "If we meet anyone else who had something stolen, I'll take more notes!"

"Thank you, Hovis. Now, let's find out more about those tracks."

The three of them got even closer to the candy store, Hovis staring at the ground to look for the tracks.

"I hope they're still here..." Hovis said. "I mean, I have my sketches and all, but if the prints aren't still here, it'll be even tougher..."

Dati looked at Hovis. "Uh, Hovis? I don't think you have anything to worry about."

Hovis looked down and saw that the tracks were, in fact, still there.

"Hey, thanks, Dati!" he said. "Now, we just have to follow these and see which way The Heartbreaker went!"

So they began to take the general pathway the tracks were following. Dati began to get a little bit nervous, and Hovis could sense it with the way Dati was taking some deep breaths.

"Something wrong?" Hovis asked.

Dati jumped a little. "Oh, um...I'm just scared that we'll encounter him. I don't think we're ready."

"This is why we need to be really quiet," Vladimir stated. "We're traveling in numbers, so I doubt he'll go after us like this. Even if we can't efficiently fight him, he knows better than to go after a member of a group when there are others who could see him and tell the authorities. If we're really quiet, he won't know we're on to him."

"Okay."

As they followed the prints, they began to notice that they were getting rather close to the outskirts of town.

"I'd think he'd be a little smarter than to just leave his trail here like this..." Dati said.

Hovis shrugged. "Yeah, well, it's kind of a lose-lose situation for him. No matter what he does, someone will find him. If he leaves his tracks here, someone will follow them to his hideout, but if he tries to cover them up, someone's bound to catch him in the act. You see, he's not the most competent thief. I bet if he didn't have his Heartbreak Attack, he wouldn't be able to steal a thing. Now, if only there were a way to disable that attack..."

"I don't know of any digimon who can do that, though..." Vladimir replied.

Before anyone else could reply, they soon heard a "Hey! Psst! Over here!" To the left, they saw BlackGargomon waving at them from underneath a nearby tree. They went over to where he was.

"What's up?" Dati asked.

"I did a little spying..." BlackGargomon began. "...and I found out a very important piece of evidence! You see those two abandoned buildings over there?"

He pointed to a pair of two-story abandoned buildings that were surrounded by a wooden fence.

Hovis took off his backpack and started to open it. "What about them?"

"I saw The Heartbreaker sneaking through a hole in the fence. When he entered, he was carrying a microphone, but he didn't have it when he left. So, this must be where he puts everything he steals!"

"Whoa! I'd better take a note on this!" Hovis said as he pulled out his notepad and flipped to a new page.

Vladimir nodded. "By the way, there was someone else who had something stolen. It was a Vademon who lost his surfboard."

"Huh...when did this happen?" BlackGargomon asked.

"A little while ago," Dati said. "And you said he stole a microphone from someone?"

"Yep. I don't know where it came from, though. All I know is that he had it when he was going to his hideout."

"Is he even using anything he steals?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," BlackGargomon said. "But if he tampers with my gift for Taomon, then he's in for it! Big time!"

A thought came to his mind. "Speaking of which, we should go see her right now and tell her about this. She's also formulating a plan regarding The Heartbreaker, and so she needs this information."

"Just let me finish my notes," Hovis said as he continued to sketch a drawing of the area. After another minute, he finished his sketch. "Okay! Got it!"

Hovis put his notepad away, and they all went to see Taomon.

In Taomon's house, she was sitting at a desk and taking notes.

"So maybe if we distract him while we retrieve the objects..." she muttered, writing something down. "...but the question is, where is he keeping the objects? If he scattered them all over the city, or worse, sent them overseas..."

Before she could think of anything else, she heard knocking on the door. When she opened it, she saw BlackGargomon standing with Vladimir, Hovis, and Dati.

"Honey, I'm home!" BlackGargomon called out with a goofy grin on his face.

Vladimir let out a loud sigh, while Hovis groaned and said, "Seriously?"

BlackGargomon chuckled. "Sorry. I just had to."

Taomon folded her arms. "Had to, or wanted to?"

"But that's beside the point," Vladimir said. "We came here because we wanted to tell you about the new evidence in the case of The Heartbreaker."

"BlackGargomon found out where he's hiding out!" Dati chimed in.

Taomon blinked. "Oh?"

"He told us all about it," Hovis stated. "I've taken some notes on it, too."

He reached into his backpack and pulled out his notepad. After turning to the correct page, he showed it to Taomon.

"So, it's those two abandoned buildings on the outskirts of town?" Taomon asked. "I was wondering why no one was using them...guess that's why."

BlackGargomon grinned. "Looks like we're on his trail now!"

"Which brings me to my plan," Taomon said. "What I was thinking was that we could get everyone in town together to meet here, we could compare notes, and together we could formulate a plan to stop The Heartbreaker and retrieve our items."

"Wait a minute," Dati said. "If everyone is meeting here, who's watching their stuff?"

"They have plenty of options. They could bring it with them, hide it where The Heartbreaker can't find it, ask their friends to watch over it...besides, they won't be living here. It's just a simple meeting every day."

"It might work," Vladimir said, shrugging.

"But for now, why don't we spend the next few days distributing flyers around town?" Taomon suggested. "The people of File City need to know exactly what's going on."

"Yeah, let's do that," Hovis said. "But you do have supplies, right?"

"They're in the basement, I think," BlackGargomon replied.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Dati watched as Hovis and BlackGargomon went down to the basement. He hoped this plan would work.

A/N: Sorry I made you all wait so long for a chapter that wasn't the most eventful. Don't worry; the next chapter will have a lot more action.