A/N: Here's Chapter 5, and I'm sure there will be a lot more action in this chapter.
Hovis walked out of the basement with a stack of flyers. "Is this gonna be good enough?"
BlackGargomon studied the stack for a bit. "Yeah, I think it'll work."
"What's going on?" Dati asked as he walked into the front room.
"We're going to distribute these flyers to the townspeople, and maybe put some up around town," Hovis said. "And it only took us, what, three days to make all the flyers?"
"Yeah, sorry about that," BlackGargomon said. "It would have been a lot easier if we had a copier, but we don't know if any places in town sell any. And some other townspeople might have copiers, but we don't want to make it seem like we're taking advantage of them."
"Well, we still made them, right?" Dati replied. "So now we can distribute them?"
Hovis nodded. "Sure we can. If more people know who The Heartbreaker is, we might be able to stop him more easily. They do call it 'power in numbers' for a reason, you know."
BlackGargomon handed Hovis a plastic bag and a roll of clear tape. "And after you're done giving flyers to everyone in File City, you can put the rest up around town."
As Hovis put the flyers in the bag, a thought occurred to Dati. "But...what about me?"
BlackGargomon paused for a moment and pondered; after all, the body shape of a Tanemon didn't exactly lend itself well to the task at hand. Unless, maybe...
"You can get people's attention!" he said.
Dati froze. "Can I? I mean, what if someone is mean to us or something? They might think we're trying to sell them something or..."
"This is why we need to explain ourselves," Hovis explained. "If we explain ourselves and they still don't want to take a flyer, it's their problem and not ours."
"Okay."
After a few more minutes of discussion, Dati and Hovis were out in File City, looking for other digimon.
"Well, at least it's a nice day," Hovis said.
"I agree with you," Dati replied before catching sight of someone in the near distance. "Hey, there's someone!"
The "someone" in question was a mummy who was wrapped in light-blue bandages, had a pink bandana on her head, wore silver leg braces, and was carrying a sniper rifle. She was taking loud, quick breaths.
Dati looked concerned. "But...is she okay?"
Hovis shrugged. "Let's ask her."
With that, the two walked up to the mummy, and Hovis said, "Excuse me."
"Stay back! I don't want what you're selling!" the mummy shrieked, about ready to brandish her rifle.
Hovis tensed up. "Whoa...please...calm down. We're not trying to sell anything. Really!"
"We just wanted you to have a flyer," Dati said, and Hovis pulled one out of his bag.
"What kind of flyer?" the mummy asked, beginning to calm down.
As Hovis handed her the flyer, Dati explained. "There's a thief that's been going around town. He uses his powers to make his targets upset before stealing from them. We're handing out flyers to warn everyone about him."
The mummy studied the flyer for a moment. On it were some safety tips, along with a picture of a WaruMonzaemon, and the phrase "Avoid The Heartbreaker!"
"Who's The Heartbreaker?" she asked. "Is it this guy on the poster?"
"Sure is," Hovis said. "By the way, did your stuff get stolen? You were in a bit of a panic when we saw you..."
"Oh, no, he didn't steal my stuff," the mummy replied. "I was upset because I just had to deal with an overzealous video store owner. Sorry about yelling at you; I thought you were him, or he sent you, or something."
"If you don't mind me asking, what did he do?" Dati asked.
"You see, I came here to pick up some tailoring supplies for my cousin. He has a business on Mesozoic Isle; he makes clothes, I sell them, and my sister makes coffee."
"Coffee?" Hovis asked.
The mummy nodded. "Coffee. Anyway, I was walking to the store that sells the tailoring supplies when I passed by the video store. I took one glance at it as I walked by, and the owner decided to rush out and drag me into his store. He wouldn't let me leave until I rented a video, even when I explained exactly why I couldn't spend my money on a movie. Fortunately, his assistant was much nicer, and she let me leave without renting anything. But I was a little worried that the owner was going to chase after me, so I ran as far as I could...and that's when I met you."
Hovis' jaw dropped. "Dang...was he desperate to make a sale, or what?"
"And not only that, but there's a thief going around town..." the mummy sighed. "And here I thought Mesozoic Isle was in bad condition..."
"Well, we can help you get to the tailoring store if you want," Hovis said. "The Heartbreaker is less likely to go after us if we're together. Right, Dati?"
"Right."
"So, your name's Dati?" the mummy asked.
"Mm-hmm. And I'm Hovis!" Hovis said.
"You can call me Isis," the mummy replied. "Were you going to deliver a flyer to the tailoring store, too?"
"We're giving them to everyone," Dati said. "This is something everyone needs to know about."
Isis looked in the direction of the tailoring store. "Okay...we should go."
So the three of them continued on the path to the store, handing out flyers to passersby along the way. In due time, Isis was able to purchase the supplies she needed, and before long, she was meeting up with Seadramon to return to Mesozoic Isle.
"You're gonna be okay, right?" Dati asked.
"I think I'll be fine," Isis replied. "Thanks, though."
As Isis and Seadramon left, Dati and Hovis watched. Remembering what Isis said about the video store owner, Dati looked up at Hovis.
"So...how are we going to give flyers to the video store owner if he's acting like that?" he asked.
Hovis shrugged. "Maybe he won't bother us if he knows we don't have any money."
"Hmm..."
"Tell you what, why don't we deal with him later and deliver these flyers elsewhere now?"
"Okay."
Dati and Hovis went back into town, continuing to hand out flyers. Eventually, their walk led them to the field with the trailer in the distance.
"BlackGargomon said there was a band hanging out in the trailer, and he also said that The Heartbreaker took a microphone to his hideout," Dati said. "Could the microphone have belonged to one of the band members?"
"Well, you know, we could break into The Heartbreaker's hideout, snag the microphone, take it back here, and ask if it belongs to them..." Hovis began. "But that's way too risky, and we don't even know if the microphone was stolen, or if The Heartbreaker got it with his own money. So let's just visit the band, give them some flyers, and ask about the microphone."
"Yeah, I was about to say..."
They began to walk through the field towards the trailer.
We're gonna meet a band! Hovis thought. I'm so excited, but at the same time, I'm nervous. Maybe they're grumpy if their stuff got stolen, but we can always explain ourselves. But still...a real life band! Awesome!
They walked for a little while, and Dati was thinking about the band and hoping they wouldn't be hostile. Dati decided to tell Hovis about his concerns, so he took a deep breath and...
"Hey! You two!"
"Huh?" Dati and Hovis looked around; neither of them had said that, so who-
"Over here!"
They looked to their right and saw a yellow-and-white fox who was wearing purple fingerless gloves with a yin-yang symbol on them. He was on his belly in an uncomfortable-looking position.
"Whoa!" Hovis said, and he and Dati ran up to the fox. "Are you okay?"
The fox groaned. "Not really. My leg hurts...I don't think I can even stand up..."
"We should tell someone about this!" Dati replied.
"Can you tell my bandmates?" the fox asked, weakly lifting up one of his paws and pointing in the direction of the trailer. "They're in that trailer over there..."
"Wait a minute!" Hovis said. "You're part of the band?"
"Mm-hmm. I play electric guitar. My name's Renamon, by the way."
Dati turned towards the trailer. "Okay, Renamon, we'll go and-"
"Wait!" Renamon said. "I have to give you the password."
Dati and Hovis gave him confused looks. "Password?"
"Yes. My band and I have a password system so that when you tell them I sent you, they'll be able to tell if you're telling the truth."
"Okay," Dati said.
"Smart thinking," Hovis added.
"Come here and listen carefully," Renamon began. Dati and Hovis walked up to him, and he whispered a secret phrase to each of them. When he was done, he asked, "Can you remember that?"
"Yep," they both said.
"Good. Now, please hurry and tell my bandmates! I need to get to safety..."
Dati and Hovis nodded at Renamon, then ran for the trailer at top speed.
Meanwhile, inside the trailer, a periwinkle wolf with dark blue stripes, magenta claws, blue jeans, brown kneepads, a brown and black glove on his left arm, and brass knuckles was lying on the couch. He was wearing a pair of headphones and bobbing his head to the music, completely oblivious to his surroundings right now. The music blaring into his ears was so loud, in fact, that he didn't notice the sound of someone knocking on the trailer door. One of the other trailer occupants, a tall, brown rabbit dressed in lavender and white, looked up from his mahjong board.
"I wonder who that is..." he muttered. "Should I tell WereGarurumon, or-"
"Don't bother," the third trailer occupant said, putting his book down. "You know how he gets when someone interrupts his music time."
This other group member was a vampire with untamed blond hair, a red mask around his head near his eyes, a red-and-black cape with a golden bat clasp, a blue shirt with a black jacket on top, black pants with jagged cuffs, and black shoes with a skull design on them. "Just leave it to me, Antylamon."
The vampire got up and walked to the trailer door. He opened it and saw Dati and Hovis staring up at him. "Can I help you?"
The two smaller digimon froze. "Uh...hi," Hovis said.
"Don't worry, I know I look scary, but I'm not going to hurt you or do anything like that," the vampire replied. "So, did you need something?"
"Do you have a bandmate named Renamon?" Dati asked.
"Yes, why?"
"He's been hurt!"
The vampire looked startled. "Really?"
Hovis nodded. "We found him in the field. He told us to come to you."
"Well, that explains why I haven't seen him for a while! But just so I know you really did talk to him..."
The vampire leaned down to their level and asked, "If Renamon wanted to talk about science, what would be the first thing he'd discuss?"
Hovis and Dati walked a little closer and whispered, "Neutron, electron, proton."
"Whoa..." the vampire said, his eyes widening. "Antylamon! They're telling the truth! Renamon's been hurt!"
Antylamon ran up to the others, a shocked expression on his face. "He has?"
"Mm-hmm. He hurt his leg!" Hovis explained.
"Oh, dear..." Antylamon whimpered.
"Tell you what, you guys go on ahead," the vampire stated. "I'll try to convince Wolfy over there to help us out. He hates it when his music time gets interrupted, but I'm sure this has to be more important to him."
"Okay," they all said.
Antylamon walked out of the trailer with Dati and Hovis, turned to them, and asked, "Where did you find him?"
Hovis pointed to the left. "This way!"
As the trio rushed in that direction, and as they got closer and closer to Renamon, they began to notice an alarming scene unfolding in front of them.
Renamon glared up at his attacker, a grey-and-cream-colored teddy bear with a red scarf and a menacing visage.
"Look, I don't see what's so hard about this," the teddy bear said. "Just tell me where your recording studio is, and I'll give back the microphone."
"We don't have a recording studio!" Renamon said. "Besides, how do I know you're not lying?"
"Likely excuse! And how do you know I am lying?"
Before Renamon could answer, an angry voice rang out.
"Heartbreaker!"
The teddy bear gasped as he saw Hovis standing nearby and glaring at him, with Dati and Antylamon close by.
"Well, well, well," the teddy bear said, walking up to the three digimon. "If it isn't the cub and his goody-goody brigade. What's the matter, cub? Uncle Vlad couldn't help you this time?"
Dati gasped. "This...this is The Heartbreaker?"
"You bet," Hovis said. "Now, listen, Heartbreaker. We're getting really sick of your tricks. Just give back the stuff you stole and get out of here, and we can all forget that this ever happened."
The Heartbreaker pretended to ponder for a second, getting a little closer to Hovis. "Hmm...how about..." And then he kicked Hovis away. "No!"
Hovis crashed onto the ground, moaning in pain.
"You think you're so strong?" Antylamon asked, clenching his fists. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"
The Heartbreaker smirked and folded his arms. "Ha! Whatcha gonna do, beat on me with your drumsticks?"
"No..." Antylamon began, his hands turning into axe blades. "But I will beat on you with my Bunny Blades!"
In that instant, Antylamon began spinning around. It started out slowly, but within the space of a few seconds, he had turned into a whirlwind, and was now spinning towards The Heartbreaker, who didn't stop smirking.
"Is that all?" he asked. "You don't even know who you're dealing with..." He concentrated his power for a few seconds before launching it in the form of a black heart-shaped bubble. "Heartbreak Attack!"
The bubble floated towards Antylamon before quickly engulfing him. Antylamon slowly stopped spinning as he and the bubble floated above the ground. The bubble popped after a short time, and he collapsed onto the ground, breathing heavily for a few seconds, before bursting into tears.
The Heartbreaker laughed at the spectacle before turning towards Dati. "Now, what should I do for you...?" he asked, but just as quickly brushed it off, walking back to Renamon. "You know what, never mind. This shrimp doesn't have a snowball's chance of beating me!"
Dati began panicking slightly. He looked at Renamon, who was about to get interrogated by The Heartbreaker once more. He looked at Hovis, who was still in pain from The Heartbreaker's kick. He looked at Antylamon, who was wailing like he'd just heard the worst kind of news.
...He looked at The Heartbreaker, who had been the cause of all this.
Dati's glare solidified, and he became cloaked in a white light.
"Huh...?" Hovis asked. "Is he...?"
Hovis' question was answered by Dati's cry of, "Tanemon digivolve to...!"
Renamon gasped at the sight, while The Heartbreaker just scoffed and said, "What now?"
When the light disappeared with a bright flash, Dati revealed his new form. Now, he was a bipedal green plant creature with frond leaves for hands (and three claws on each), roots for feet, sharp teeth, black eyes, and a lavender flower on top of his head.
"...Alraumon!"
"Whoa..." Renamon and Hovis said.
The Heartbreaker rolled his eyes. "Oh, so you digivolved, huh? Well, kid, I guess I will have to do something about you after all!"
As he slowly made his way towards Dati, the newly-digivolved digimon started shaking.
Think, Dati, think! he thought. He looked down at his leaf hands, and then an idea formed.
"Nemesis Ivy!" he cried, launching two vines out of his leaf hands. The vines wrapped themselves around The Heartbreaker's leg. Dati pulled backwards, and The Heartbreaker fell down, landing on his back.
"Ugh...well, kid, you're smarter than you look, and that did slow me down," The Heartbreaker began, getting up as Dati retracted the vines. "But it'll take more than that to-"
"Hey, you!"
The Heartbreaker looked and saw WereGarurumon and the vampire glaring at him. He asked, "You talkin' to me?"
"Yeah, you," WereGarurumon said, walking up to him. "What the heck did you do to Renamon, and why is Antylamon crying?"
"Simple. They tried to pick a fight with me, so I fought back," The Heartbreaker said.
The vampire walked up to Renamon and asked, "Renamon, what did he do?"
"I was going for a walk a little while ago, when I saw this digimon walking away from our trailer towards the city," Renamon began. "At first, I didn't think anything of it, but then I noticed that he was muttering something about how he 'couldn't find anything else, not even another microphone'. I remembered that WereGarurumon had been complaining about being unable to find his microphone for the past few days, and so I confronted...The Heartbreaker, as these digimon over here seem to be calling him. Anyway, he grabbed me by the leg and slammed me down. I tried to stand up, but my leg was in too much pain...ugh, and I think he might have bent it the wrong way too."
"So you steal my microphone, hurt Renamon, and you interrupt my music time?" WereGarurumon asked, getting into The Heartbreaker's face. "Who the heck do you think you are?"
The Heartbreaker just couldn't stop smirking. "Um, hello? What part of 'Heartbreaker' are you not getting here? Do you expect me to skip around and throw flowers everywhere with a name like that?"
Hovis sighed. "You know, we originally called you that as an insult..."
"Yeah, and I took it and made it my own!" The Heartbreaker replied. "Maybe you should have called me something else if you don't like that."
"I don't have time for this!" WereGarurumon yelled. "Just give me back my microphone and go away!"
"Make me!"
WereGarurumon growled and kneed The Heartbreaker in the gut. Since the kneepad had spikes on it, the attack was especially painful.
"Ugh!" The Heartbreaker said as he staggered backwards, but he soon regained his posture. "Why don't you try this on for size?"
He leaped into the air, raised his gauntlet-covered paw, and shouted, "Bear Claw!"
WereGarurumon, not one to just let himself get upstaged like that, also leaped into the air, shouting, "Wolf Claw!"
The two digimon slashed each other in midair, and both fell backwards onto the ground with a thud. They soon got up, and were about to attack each other again when...
"Nightmare Claw!"
A dark energy wave hit The Heartbreaker in the chest, knocking him over for the third time in the past several minutes. Everyone looked up to see where the attack came from, and they saw the vampire floating in midair.
"No fair! I just got up!" The Heartbreaker complained. "Who even asked you to join the fight, anyway?"
"When you attack my friends, I have an excuse," the vampire said.
As this was happening, Antylamon had finally recovered from the Heartbreak Attack. He had heard the vampire talking, and wasn't sure where he came from. "Uhh...PunkMyotismon, what happened?"
"Oh, we're just fighting this digimon who calls himself The Heartbreaker," the vampire (now known as PunkMyotismon) explained.
"Well, I knew that..." Antylamon said. "I meant to say, 'When did you get here?' Renamon, those other guys, and I were here first, but then I got hit by the Heartbreak Attack and I don't remember what happened between then and now."
"Well, Dati digivolved and started fighting The Heartbreaker," Hovis began, motioning towards Dati, and then he motioned towards WereGarurumon and PunkMyotismon. "And then those guys arrived and started fighting The Heartbreaker."
"And no one else is gonna fight The Heartbreaker today, 'cause I'm getting out of here before anyone else knocks me down!" The Heartbreaker yelled, running away.
"Oh no you don't!" WereGarurumon shouted, about ready to chase after him. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Let him go for now," PunkMyotismon said. "I'd like to stop him now, too, but right now, we should get Renamon to safety."
So Antylamon picked up Renamon, and the whole group went back to the trailer.
Once they returned, Antylamon set Renamon down on the couch. "Do you need anything?"
"I'm thirsty," Renamon said.
"Nice to meet you, Thirsty," WereGarurumon said before bursting into laughter.
PunkMyotismon sighed and shook his head. "I'll get you something to drink."
"Thank you."
While PunkMyotismon was off getting a water bottle for Renamon, Dati and Hovis decided to chat with Antylamon and WereGarurumon.
"So, you guys are a band?" Hovis asked.
Antylamon nodded. "I'm the drummer, Renamon's the guitarist-"
"I'm the singer, and Vampy over there is the bassist," WereGarurumon said. "Together, we're called Castle in the Air!"
Hovis grinned. "Cool! Have you recorded any albums yet?"
"Well, we totally would, but there's just one problem: we can't find a decent recording studio anywhere in this city! The places we've looked either have bad conditions for recording, would get us a million and one noise complaints, or both! Trust me, if we had a good place to record, we'd be churning out songs faster than you can sing a C-major scale."
"But on the positive side, this does leave us with plenty of time to come up with album material," Antylamon said.
"There is that," Dati replied. "By the way, we're part of a group investigating The Heartbreaker and trying to stop him. We were going to give out flyers to you, but since you met him face-to-face, I'm not sure if you'd still want them."
"Oh, no, we could still use them," Antylamon said. "In my opinion, you can't be too careful."
Hovis took off his backpack and unzipped it. "Here, let me get some out for you. They have safety tips on them."
"Also, we were wondering if you could meet up with us at our hideout later on, so you can tell the other investigators about what happened today," Dati said as Hovis went around handing out the flyers to the band members. "You could hide your stuff so The Heartbreaker doesn't get to it, if you're worried about that, or you can pick someone to guard the trailer."
"We'll think of something," WereGarurumon said. "All I know is that I want my microphone back!"
"And once we're done here, I'm sure you'll get it back," Hovis said. "Anyway, sorry to leave so soon, but Dati and I have to finish handing out these flyers."
"If you want to know where the hideout is, just look for us in town," Dati added. "We're trying to get everyone in town involved, so you could ask them too; maybe they'll know."
"We'll try to remember that," Antylamon replied.
With that, Hovis and Dati said goodbye to Castle in the Air for now, left the trailer, and went back into the city to deliver more flyers.
A/N: Sorry I made you all wait so long, but hopefully this was worth it with its length and content. And if you're unsure about what an Alraumon looks like, it basically looks like a Palmon, but with a bluish-greyish-lavender flower on its head instead of a pink one.