A/N: I had a document for Chapter 7 in progress, but my computer decided to reboot one night and I lost it because I didn't save. I guess this is why you save your documents before you go to bed, huh? (Don't worry, I actually didn't lose much.)

The sun was slowly rising in the sky, changing the sky's color to an orange hue that would fade to light blue later in the morning. Rays were shining down onto the oval-shaped, rubbery track of a stadium. Several hurdles were scattered on the track, almost beckoning someone to step over them while running at top speed.

Someone was, in fact, there in the stadium.

But he wasn't planning on using them for their intended purpose.

In fact, it was anyone's guess as to whether or not he wanted to use them at all.

But he still wanted them.

The Heartbreaker, holding an empty garbage bag, opened the doors leading out to the track area, saw the hurdles, and smirked.

"Target sighted," he whispered, opening up the bag. He walked out onto the track, picked up a hurdle, and placed it in the bag. One by one, each of the other hurdles joined that first one, and The Heartbreaker soon had every last hurdle in the bag. As uncomfortable as the bag felt hanging over his shoulder with all the hurdles inside, he still felt satisfied with himself. Besides, he would soon store this bag in his hideout anyway.

As he made his way back to the entrance of the stadium, a poster caught his eye. It featured two digimon; one was a dragon of some sort wearing flame-painted armor, while the other was an android.

Flamedramon vs. Andromon!

Who Wants the Victory More?

The Four-Lap Hurdle Race!

Ultimate Test of Endurance!

"Heh, not today..." The Heartbreaker said. He walked into the lobby of the stadium, made his way up to a desk, took out a piece of paper and some crayons, and drew a familiar broken heart picture on the paper.

It was such a thrill for him to be a thief. Whenever he made a new heist, he could feel the excitement build up in him. After all, he could take whatever he wanted, and he had the power to disrupt important things as well. He remembered stealing the supplies for the sweets store several days ago, thus leaving File City with an even more limited supply of candy and baked goods. Later, he stole the microphone from that rock band, thus ensuring that they wouldn't make any adequate performances since their vocalist, on his own, couldn't sing above the band's amplification (unless they relied on instrumentals until they got a new microphone... and even then, most digimon at the concert would expect singing). And now, he was disrupting a whole athletic event by stealing all the hurdles. Sure, the digimon in charge could change the event to one that didn't involve hurdles, but still, Flamedramon and Andromon had been training specifically for this event. Just the reactions when they found out that their training would have been for nothing...

At this point, The Heartbreaker, as he finished sketching his calling card, wished he was able to install hidden cameras in the stadium so he could see those reactions for himself...

"Hey."

The Heartbreaker gasped and turned around at the sudden voice. He saw Flamedramon standing near the entrance and glaring at him.

"Hello...Flamedramon, is it?" The Heartbreaker said.

"I don't recognize you. Are you new here?"

"Uh...yeah! I haven't been in town for very long. Just a week or so."

"So did you get a job here or something? Why are you here so early?"

"Well, why are you here so early?"

"Training. Gonna have a big hurdle race with Andromon later. And you didn't answer my question."

The Heartbreaker had to think quickly. "I'm...inspecting things! 'Cause you know, if there's one flaw in the track, your race could fall apart!"

"Okay, so what's in the bag?" Flamedramon asked. "The way the bag is shaped, it looks suspiciously like you have hurdles in there..."

"Yeah! I have to check the hurdles! You know, just to make sure they won't fall apart, and they'll stand up straight."

Flamedramon walked over to the door leading to the track and opened it. When he didn't see any hurdles on the track, he closed the door and turned back to The Heartbreaker.

"Are you sure you're an inspector?" Flamedramon asked.

"Of course I am! Why would you-?"

"Let me explain. The other day, a couple of kids came by the stadium. They were handing out posters talking about a thief called The Heartbreaker. The guy on the poster looked kinda like you...in fact, there's no 'kinda'. He looked exactly like you!"

"Well, how do you know it was me? What if it was a different WaruMonzaemon?"

"For one thing, I haven't seen any other WaruMonzaemon walking around town," Flamedramon said. "And trust me, I do a lot of wandering around town. But more importantly, think about it! We have a guy who comes in, claiming to need our hurdles for inspection, and he looks exactly like the thief mentioned on the poster...what if you're the thief?"

The Heartbreaker put his crayons back and walked up to Flamedramon. "Hmph! Well, if you think a digimon like me would willingly steal from others..."

Suddenly, The Heartbreaker's look of false offense changed to a devious smirk. "...You'd be totally right! Heartbreak Attack!"

Flamedramon growled and lunged for the bag, hoping to rip it open with his claws. But the black bubble engulfed him before he could reach the bag, and when the bubble popped, he was a sobbing mess on the stadium lobby floor.

"And that takes care of that," The Heartbreaker said, walking out with the bag of hurdles.

Flamedramon wasn't sure how long he had been crying. The power of The Heartbreaker's attack had rendered him oblivious to the world around him; it might as well have been only him and his angst. But when he came to and saw Andromon looking at him, concerned, the first thing on his mind was not greeting his fellow athlete. Instead, he started frantically looking outside at the track, and then around the building. Andromon wasn't offended (his rival was known for working in mysterious ways like this), but he was confused. Usually Flamedramon never panicked about anything, so why was he doing that now?

Finally, Flamedramon stormed back into the lobby, with his teeth gritted and his fists trembling.

"He took the hurdles," he said, as if he couldn't believe it. Then he trudged up to the desk and slammed his fists on it repeatedly. "He took! The freaking! Hurdles!"

"Who's 'he'?" Andromon asked. "And what are you talking about?"

"Whaddaya mean, what am I talking about? What do you think I'm talking about?"

"Now, Flamedramon..." Andromon began, walking up to him. "You said someone took the hurdles. But I don't know who did it. Was it Gururumon?"

"No..." Flamedramon said. He then told Andromon about his encounter with The Heartbreaker.

"Oh, no..." Andromon said.

"And he left this paper behind," Flamedramon said, holding up the paper in his hand, trembling with rage. The emotions in him almost made him want to take it out on the drawing. "It makes me so mad, I could-"

"Wait!" Andromon said. "I know you're mad, but we shouldn't destroy that paper. Instead, we could go around town and ask if anyone knows about where The Heartbreaker went."

Flamedramon sighed. "Yeah, I guess so...maybe see if anyone knows those kids. But how many digimon in town are even up at this hour? Usually, not even Gururumon is awake this early!"

"We need all the help we can get," Andromon said. "And if no one else is awake, we can just wait for a little longer until more digimon are up."

"Okay," Flamedramon said. "I just think we should leave a note for Gururumon in case he comes here."

"I'll go do that," Andromon said. He went into another room, came out with a pencil and a piece of paper, and started writing a note explaining the situation.

"And I noticed The Heartbreaker broke the lock on the door!" Flamedramon said. "Seriously, what's his problem?"

"I don't know," Andromon said as he finished the note. He left it on the desk, and he and Flamedramon left the stadium building. The sky was already light blue, but it still had a few hints of orange. The duo wandered around for a little bit, trying to find other digimon who could help them. While they did find a few digimon, none of them had seen The Heartbreaker or were part of the investigation, so they couldn't help Flamedramon and Andromon.

"This stinks!" Flamedramon said as he and Andromon took a seat on a bench. "Why can't we find someone to help us?"

"I'm sure they'll wake up pretty soon," Andromon said. "We just have to be patient."

Flamedramon growled. "We've been training for this race for so long, and now some thief decides to steal the hurdles because I don't know! Who does he think he is, anyway? Stealing everyone's stuff...who died and told him he could do that? Why couldn't he just get his own hurdles instead of taking ours? It's-"

"Excuse me."

"Whaddaya want?" Flamedramon asked the Alraumon that interrupted them, glaring at him. "Can't you see I'm ranting here?"

"Oh, um, I'm sorry," Alraumon said, shying away. "I just noticed that you were holding The Heartbreaker's paper, and I thought he stole something from you."

"Wait a minute," Andromon said. "Aren't you Dati from yesterday?"

"Yes."

"And you're part of the investigation regarding The Heartbreaker?"

"Yes."

"Well, The Heartbreaker just stole our hurdles," Andromon said. "Do you know where he went?"

"No," Dati said. "But we are having a meeting tonight at BlackGargomon's house, and we want anyone who knows something about The Heartbreaker to come. Do you think you could come? It's at five."

"We might have to talk with our boss, Gururumon, about this," Andromon said. "But we'll come if we can, and we'll tell you everything we know."

"Thank you," Dati said. "I hope I can see you at five."

"Likewise," Andromon said as Dati walked away. He turned to glare at Flamedramon.

"What?" Flamedramon asked.

"Whaddaya want? Can't you see I'm ranting here?" Andromon said, mocking Flamedramon's tone of voice. "Nice going, Flamedramon! You almost scared off someone who could help us!"

"But I didn't actually scare him off, now did I?" Flamedramon replied.

"There was still a risk of it!" Andromon said. "But let's not go on about this; it's not gonna do us any favors."

"Yeah," Flamedramon said. "So, what should we do now?"

"I don't know about you, but I want to go home right now."

"Sounds like a plan."

So, Flamedramon and Andromon went to their respective homes, where they spent the rest of the morning.

At one o'clock, Flamedramon's phone rang. Since Flamedramon had been in the middle of a nap at the time, he was understandably grumpy. With a groan, he picked up the phone and asked, "Who is it? Whaddaya want?"

"Flamedramon?"

Flamedramon faltered. "Gururumon?"

"Yeah, it's me. I saw your note on the desk. So, the hurdles are gone, huh?"

"I tried to stop him, but he was too quick," Flamedramon said. "Too quick for a runner...ha!"

"That's all right," Gururumon said. "At least you tried. Besides, we'll get the hurdles back sooner or later. And if we don't, we can just get some more!"

"Yeah, I guess so," Flamedramon said.

"But I wanted to call you so I could tell you something important. You see, I spoke with a detective and his assistant a little while ago, and they told me that they're going to have a meeting at five o'clock to discuss The Heartbreaker. I think it'd be a good idea for us to go, don't you think?"

"This morning, a kid told us about the exact same thing, and we thought it'd be a good idea. We just needed to know if you'd let us go."

"Why wouldn't I? He stole our property, after all."

"Well, I didn't know if you wanted us to have the race without the hurdles, or what."

"Oh, no, I postponed the race until we get our hurdles back, so don't worry about that."

"Okay. I guess I'll see you at five, then?"

"Sure! Bye, Flamedramon!"

"Bye."

After hanging up, Flamedramon continued sitting on his bed. He would never know how Gururumon managed to stay easygoing at a time like this.

Vladimir was pacing the floor in BlackGargomon's living room. "What time is it?"

"4:45," Taomon said, looking at the clock. "They should be coming any time now."

BlackGargomon was sitting on the couch with Dati and Hovis on either side. "I hope we can start the meeting soon. You have no idea how aggravating it is to have to watch yourself at all times so you don't get stolen from! It's gotten to the point where Taomon and I have to pay close attention to our surroundings when we go out to get groceries! No one should have to live like that!"

"And if all goes according to plan, we won't have to live like that," Vladimir said. "The sooner we stop The Heartbreaker, the sooner we can stop worrying about our things being stolen."

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

"I'll get it!" BlackGargomon said, hopping off the couch and going to the door. He opened it, and there was Vademon. "Hello?"

"Yeah, is this where they're having the meeting to stop The Heartbreaker?" Vademon asked.

"Yep! Come on in!"

"Sweet!" Vademon said, going inside. "So, what are we gonna do?"

"We're gonna talk about what The Heartbreaker did, and how we're gonna stop him," Hovis explained. "We also have a video that's a documentary on WaruMonzaemon. It's just a half-hour long."

"Awesome! I can't wait to get my surfboard back!"

There was another knock on the door. BlackGargomon opened it, and he saw Biyomon and Sheepmon standing there.

"Are you here for the meeting?" BlackGargomon asked.

"Mm-hmm," Biyomon said, and Sheepmon nodded.

"Come in!" BlackGargomon said, and Biyomon and Sheepmon did so. "We won't be starting the meeting for a little while."

Dati looked concerned. "It's great that you're here...but who's guarding the store?"

Biyomon walked up to him. "Don't worry. We put our stock in a place where The Heartbreaker can't get to it."

"That's good."

They spent a couple more minutes discussing random things, and then someone knocked on the door yet again. BlackGargomon opened the door and saw Flamedramon and Andromon. Behind them was a periwinkle wolf with blue stripes and black claws.

"Are we the first ones here?" Flamedramon asked.

BlackGargomon shook his head. "Third."

"Darn it!"

"Now, now..." the wolf said as they walked in. "At least third place is better than last place."

"He has a point," Andromon said.

"Hey, aren't you Gururumon from the stadium?" Hovis asked.

"Mm-hmm. And I brought Flamedramon and Andromon with me, too."

"We were supposed to be racing tonight," Flamedramon said. "But somebody had other ideas."

"That's a bummer," Hovis said. "But that's why we're here - so we can find a way to stop him."

Once again, the discussion continued for a short while until there was more knocking at the door. This time, it was the members of Castle in the Air.

WereGarurumon looked agitated when he saw everyone else. "If they started without us, I'm gonna-"

"We didn't!" Dati called out. The band walked inside, and BlackGargomon shut the door.

"I think that's everybody," he said.

Taomon glanced at the clock. "But it's still a couple minutes before five."

BlackGargomon shrugged. "So what do you guys wanna talk about?"

Everyone carried on with their random conversations for a couple more minutes, and before long, the clock read 5:00.

"Okay, everybody, let's get started!" BlackGargomon said, and everyone looked at him. "Vladimir, would you like to start things off?"

Vladimir stood up and nodded. "As I'm sure all of you know by now, a WaruMonzaemon known as The Heartbreaker has been going around town and stealing everybody's things, leaving only a piece of paper with a broken heart drawing on it. He may be new to you, but Hovis and I know him from a short while back. He was committing a very similar reign of terror in our hometown of Ursa Town. When the townspeople managed to stop him, retrieve their things, and increase security measures, he decided to leave town. Ever since, we've been in hot pursuit, trying to capture him and take him into custody. But even though he isn't the smartest of thieves, he still managed to one-up me shortly after we arrived here. When Hovis and I weren't looking, he snuck up on me and hit me with his Heartbreak Attack. I don't remember what was going on for a few minutes after that, but when I came to, I found that my glasses were gone! My vision is incredibly blurry withouut my glasses, so as you can imagine, this has been very troublesome for me. Soon afterwards, we met BlackGargomon and Taomon, and then we met Dati later. The five of us have been working to stop The Heartbreaker since. So, since we're all here because The Heartbreaker affected us, why don't we each talk about something he did?"

First, BlackGargomon told the story of how The Heartbreaker stole his present for Taomon. Then, Sheepmon explained how The Heartbreaker stole the supplies she was getting for Wool and Wings. This was followed by Vademon's story of how The Heartbreaker stole his surfboard, and then Castle in the Air talked about their encounters with The Heartbreaker, including the one that happened yesterday. Finally, Flamedramon and Andromon told everyone about what had just happened to them that morning.

"As you can see, The Heartbreaker is a force to be reckoned with," BlackGargomon said. "If we're going to stop him, we need to understand his species. Yesterday, I rented a videotape about WaruMonzaemon, and I think it would be a good idea for us to watch it."

"We're gonna be here all night, aren't we?" Flamedramon asked.

"You took the words right outta my mouth," WereGarurumon said.

"Don't worry, guys, it's only a half-hour," Hovis said. "And this meeting is only gonna last for an hour, maybe a little longer."

Soon, everyone gathered in front of the TV and started watching the video. Hovis took notes on the different aspects of a WaruMonzaemon, particularly where battling was concerned. When the tape was over, Hovis stood up.

"There's something else you should know," Hovis said. "We've found out where The Heartbreaker's keeping the things he steals." He flipped to the page that showed the diagram of the buildings. "It's in the buildings on the outskirts of town - Heartbreaker's Alley, as I call it. He goes through a hole in the fence and places the stuff in the buildings. What we need to do now is formulate a plan to go in and get our stuff back. But of course, we also need to confront The Heartbreaker himself so we can stop him once and for all. I'm thinking that we can use our next meeting to devise a plan. Who's with me?"

Everyone cheered.

"That's what I like to hear!" Hovis said. "With your help, we can have The Heartbreaker out of here faster than you can say 'Rock on'!"

A/N: Next time will be one of the most action-packed chapters yet! (Also, please don't tell me I spelled "Garurumon" wrong; Flamedramon and Andromon's boss is a subspecies that's named Gururumon. Look it up on the Digimon Wiki if you don't believe me.)

Oh, and I have an AO3 account now. Starting now, the story will be published both here and there.