See if you can notice something interesting in the middle of this chapter.

Chapter 4

"I can't believe he did this;" a panicked Tai says himself; "Oh Agumon, why? Why couldn't you just wait?"

It took Tai awhile to locate the dorm cabins, he even asked for directions twice and still couldn't find them. Once locating the dorms, he then had to determine which one his team was in (why hadn't he paid more attention to the handout). After checking 2 cabins that had no luggage he recognized, he finally realized that the team names and schools where marked on the doors (oh duh). Hopefully, Agumon hasn't wondered off to any other place, but it's likely that he has.

Sometime during all this, what sounded like a sonic bomb was heard, and the ground shook. Tai noticed, but was too preoccupied to really pay much attention. He'd heard that there was a military base nearby, so it must have come from there.

Another sonic bomb occurred just a few minutes later, again, Tai didn't pay much attention to it.

Tai found his luggage on the bed marked with his name (another duh). He dumps out his bags, but doesn't find Agumon. He looks under the bed, and several others, no Agumon. He looks in the closets and bathroom, no Agumon. He keeps calling out his name, still no Agumon. Tai tries to resent the temptation to look in the other guys' bags. Surely Agumon wouldn't still be hiding in a bag by now.

Tai hears some musical sounds coming the other side of a door. The sign says "Counselor RM #1". This must be were the adults (and assumedly Katherine) are staying. It sounds like a musical tap rhythm, with some music playing along with it. Katherine must be tap dancing, if Tai's memory serves him well from school talent shows that that's what the sound is. Tai puts his ear to the door. Definitely sounds like tap dancing. The door is locked, not that Tai would actually open it up on her. Tai starts to knock, but decides against it.

"Nah, I'm don't need to bother her." Then Tai feels his stomach growl; "The CAFETERIA! Of course. That's were Agumon would have gone."

Katherine finishes her tap dance, and nearly passes out. Agumon's sitting on her bed, clapping and cheering; "Come on more. I want to see more!" Agumon had asked what ballet, tap, and jazz were, and Katherine decided to show him. What had started out as a demonstration turned into a full-fledged performance. Agumon was amused by Katherine's movements and wanted to see more, and more, and more. He especially loves the tap. Katherine LOVES to dance, but after 13 full dance routines in a row, she's worn out and about out of breathe.

"Take….five;" Katherine barely breathes the words and plops on the bed. She's sweaty, her hair's a mess, and her cheeks are very red. Agumon realizes he went overboard.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Kat. I was enjoying it so much I didn't want it to end. I didn't realize how exhausting it must be."

"It…..is….." Katherine says between breathes; "but…..so….worth it."

"You must enjoy dancing the same way Tai loves soccer, and I love eating!"

Katherine seats up and nods, although comparing activities to eating sounds odd, even for a so-called odd person like herself. She decides to get out her dinosaur encyclopedia and show Agumon the pictures of Tyrannosaurs Rex.

"See, that's what you resemble."

Agumon looks and isn't sure what to think; "I don't know. I don't really look like that. I don't think my evolved forms look that scary. And why are its arms so sort? There's hardly anything there."

Katherine shrugs her shoulders; "Scientists are still debating that. She may have had no actual use for them."

"Now that's silly;" replies Agumon, "now where's Greymon?"

"I don't think there's an actual dinosaur in here like you describe;" she answers; "I don't know of a large carnivore that has 3 long horns. Although this does;" she show's Agumon the Triceratops. Agumon doesn't like the sight of those horns.

"Greymon definitely doesn't look like that. And I don't think I'd like to meet those horns. They look terrifying."

"They're supposed to be;" replies Katherine; "I'd love to see you as Greymon."

Agumon looks at her; "Ah, not so easy. I have to have Tai around, plus, there has to be danger."

Agumon notices that Katherine doesn't make eye-contact with him. It's like she's avoiding it. He then looks at the door and sighs; "When are they supposed to come here? It's been…..FOREVER."

"Drills should be over by now, but most of the guys won't be here until close to bedtime. After supper, they have motivational speakers."

"Sounds boring, and when is supper?" Agumon hugs his belly, which is empty yet again; "I'm STARVING!"

Katherine rolls her eyes. How can this creature, called a digimon, possibly still be hungry after all those snacks earlier? He seems to be a real-life Scooby-Doo and Shaggy! However, he sure is cute, sweet, and funny, and a good listener. She's never opened up to anybody so quickly that wasn't a dog.

Then Katherine gets a text; "Oh, I have to meet Aunt Nina for supper. I'll bring you some food back as soon as I can get away."

"Why don't you just carry me in your bag? Or like you would a stuff animal? I can help myself."

"You're too heavy for me to carry, Agumon.

Oh that's right. Agumon often forgets that Tai used to couldn't carry him either. He and his fellow partner digimon have really been spoiled in recent years, in more ways than one.

"We'll, I'll put on a disguise, that's what I usually do."

Katherine shakes her head; "I don't believe that's a good idea. Most of these guys hate digimon, and Aunt Nina doesn't like anything alive, except dogs, some dogs anyway."

"BUT I'M STARVING!" Agumon flaps on the bed, hugging his stomach, and throws a slight tantrum, "and I want to see Tai. I MISS TAI!" Katherine learned a long time ago that tantrums don't work, not on her Aunt Nina or teachers at least.

"Give me 30-45 min. And I'll look for Tai while I'm out there. I'll bring him back to you. I promise." Katherine holds up her pinky, this time making eye-contact with Agumon. He doesn't get it.

"Why are you waving your little finger at me? Did I do something wrong?"

"Pinky swear. Give me your little fing…claw. This is sealing a promise."

"Oh;" Agumon holds up his claw, Katherine raps her pinky around it, and they shake on it; "Maybe I should try this on Tai."

Katherine quickly combs her hair and pulls it into a ponytail, blows Agumon a kiss and runs out. Agumon stares at the ceiling, rubbing his growling belly. As much as Agumon loves this world, one thing he does miss about the digital world is being able to roam free, not having to hide all the time.

"Why won't people trust us? I know some digimon are bad and have tried to destroy this world, I fought all of them, but we're not all like that. Why can't people see that? At least Kat does."

He lays there for a grand total of 5 minutes, then he can't take it anymore. He MUST find something to eat. But he promised Katherine that he wouldn't leave.

"I don't to want to break that promise, but I've got to do something. Maybe there's some snacks hidden in those bags."

Agumon decides to search through the luggage.

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Tai makes it to the cafeteria, and unusual for him, he's too worried to grab something to eat. Instead, he searches everywhere for Agumon. He doesn't find him under any tables or anything (and gets a few strange looks in the process). Nobody in here looks small enough to be him, at least until he spots somebody approximately Agumon's height, wearing a hoodie over their head and grabbing some milk. Tai rushes over to him and looks at the face; "Agu…;" it's not Agumon, it's a small child, who looks upset; "Oh sorry." Tai backs away before the child can start crying.

"Hey, who snatched my hotdog?" Tai overhears a guy say, looking down at his hand wondering what happened. Tai sees a gust of wind blow the table cloth and something moving underneath.

"Ah ha;" Tai crutches down and pulls up the table cloth; "Agum…;" again, it's not Agumon. It's a dog munching on the hotdog.

The dog looks at Tai and gets into a defense mode with the hotdog in its mouth; "Oops, sorry."

Tai keeps looking, even trying the kitchen, which he isn't allowed to enter. "Has anybody noticed any food disappearing?" The cooks and servers give him funny looks. Tai once again apologies and leaves. If Agumon's not here, where could he be? Tai passes an open meeting room with some couches. One couch has a blanket on it, and something approximately Agumon's size is moving underneath it. "Ah hah; now I've got you." Tai pulls off the blanket, it's another dog, strike three. She looks at Tai, sniffs him, puts her paws on his chest, and starts licking. "Hey, cut it out." As the dog leans forward, Tai's forced to pick her up. She keeps licking and wagging her tail. Not wanting to be rude, Tai sets her down and pets her for a couple minutes. Then something else seems to catch her interest and she runs out. Tai's face is covered with dog saliva.

"Yuck. What's with all the dogs around here?" Tai goes to the restroom, washes his face, and resumes his search. At a table, Katherine spots Tai and tries to excuse herself. "Katherine;" says Coach Hino; "Finish at least half of that sandwich before you go." Katherine takes three more quick bits of the sandwich, gulps some water, then gets up; "Excuse me Aunt Nina, see you back in the room." She takes off. "Katherine, come back here;" but she's gone. Nina Hino shakes her head. Getting a light, finicky eater like Katherine to eat at all is a challenge, she's usually too eager to get back to her reading or projects. She usually won't remember to eat at all unless Nina reminds her too.

Katherine tries to call out Tai's name and to get to him, but she keeps bumping into this crowd of teenage boys, plus they keep blocking her path. One guy accidently knocks her down. She can spot Tai leaving the cafeteria. Before she can get up, however, she feels something wet on her arm. It's one of the dogs, and he recognizes her from last time she was here. "Hello Baxter." Baxter, being a 150 lbs. German Shepard, gets on top of the average size 9-year-old girl and pins her to ground, wagging his tail fiercely, licking her like crazy.

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Agumon's going through the 11th set of luggage. All he's found editable so far is a package of Double Stuffed Oreo's that he's already consumed. He's done a rather poor job at re-stuffing everything back into the bags, or rather half-way stuffed.

"Aw come on. Don't these guys bring food with them?"

He's on his way to the 12th set when the door opens. Agumon freezes and drops in the middle of the walk way. Why hadn't he been paying more attention? He lays still as two teenage boys about Tai's age walk in. Agumon doesn't recognize these two, and he recognizes every member on Tai's team. They must be from another one. One of them walks straight for Agumon and tumble right over him, rolling the digimon on his back. The boy lands on his hands and knees.

"Whoa! What was that?" Both boys look at Agumon.

"Hey;" says the other; "What's this doing in the middle of the floor." He kicks Agumon out of the way, which isn't very pleasant, and the poor digimon slams into a metal bed railing; "OWF!" Neither boys seems to notice that sound.

"Hey!" goes the one that tripped over Agumon; "Somebody's been messing with my luggage! Look at this Marcus! Everything's wrinkled and disorganized. I had everything perfectly and neatly folded in here. Even my CD's are out of order. Who'd do this evil thing?"

What does he mean by evil? Thinks Agumon.

"Chill Thomas;" says Marcus, the one who kicked Agumon; "It's not the end of the world. My luggage is a mess too, but I'm not going to complain about it."

"Your luggage was already that sloppy anyway."

"Can it." As Marcus searches through his stuff, however, it's his turn to get upset; "HEY! Where's my Oreo's? Don't tell me somebody took them!"

"And ate them it seems;" Thomas finds the empty package on the floor.

"WHAT?" Marcus snatches the package; "This is unforgiveable! What am I supposed to do now?"

"Just do the hot tub without them," suggest Thomas, trying to reorganize his stuff.

"I CAN'T;" argues Marcus; "I can't relax without my Oreo's. It's not possible. This is a major crime!"

"Can it will you;" goes Thomas; "You've got to find some other way to relax Marcus, otherwise, you'll start packing on the pounds. Hey, where are, oh there they are." Thomas takes out a large bag of skittles.

What? Thinks Agumon; How did I miss those? Is something wrong with my sniffer?"

"Really Thomas, you're such a hypocrite."

"These are much healthier then Oreo's."

"Oh really? How….OWF;" Marcus accidently steps on Agumon's tail, the poor digimon's doing all he can to hold in the pain and not make a sound; "Didn't kick this thing for enough." He grabs Agumon by the tail and throws him. Hitting the wall hard with his head, Agumon screams; "OUCH! OWF!" The boys looks at him, but just shrug it off.

"Must be an animatronic;" says Thomas; "That's no way to treat somebody else's property Marcus. You have no respect."

The two exit the cabin arguing, Marcus slamming the door behind him. Agumon sits up, rubbing his throbbing head; "Ow. Maybe being out here wasn't my best idea."

Agumon's still rubbing his owes when the front door opens again. This time, it is a guy from Tai's team, it's; "RICO!" Agumon says in quite voice; "Not him again."

Rico takes off his still sweaty and smelly clothes and stuffs them into his duffle bag. Agumon can smell him from several beds down and holds his nose. Phew You. HE STINKS! He then processes to put on fresh clothes over his stinky body. Ugh! Even Agumon knows that's so unhygienic. He smells like strong sweat and; What's that other smell? Smoke? Doesn't smell like steak or BBQ Pork smoke.

Thinking that makes Agumon's stomach growl loudly. Rico hears it and turns his direction. He follows the rumbling a few beds down and sees the digimon. Agumon freezes, with his hands on his stomach. He can feel nervous sweat drops form.

"Well well;" sneers Rico; "There it is again. Are you still hungry? Sounds like your motor is running." Rico picks Agumon up again by the leg. It hurts even worse this time; "Oh did Katherine leave you out here? She should know better to put her toys away. How do I turn you off?" Rico shakes Agumon worse than he did before. Then he starts poking him hard in the belly, mocking him. Agumon's blood is starting to boil. "Hey, why not;" Rico flips Agumon right side up; "I'll rip the stuffing and batteries or whatever's in there right out."

Say what?

Rico pulls Agumon's arm, very, very hard. Agumon's had enough. He opens his mouth and bits Rico on the wrist.

"OWEEEEE!" Rico drops Agumon and clings his now puckered and bleeding wrist. "Wha…HEY! You're not a toy! YOU'RE ALIVE!" Agumon scrambles underneath a bed. Rico grabs a baseball bat.

"COME OUT FROM UNDER THERE YOU LITTLE FREAK! HOW DARE YOU TRY TO EAT ME!" Rico looks under what he thought was the right bed but sees nothing. "WHERE ARE YOU?"

The door then flies open. Tai had been almost back to the cabin when he heard the commotion. He sees that Rico has corned Agumon, raising his bat to hit him.

"What are doing Rico?" Rico is shocked and turns around.

"What does it look like I'm doing Tai? I'm trying to kill this little monster. He tried to eat me!"

"Are you sure?"

"Am I sure? Look;" Rico goes over to Tai and shows him the bit marks.

"Maybe he felt threatened;" Tai says with a forced chuckles; "Are you sure that it's alive?"

"Are you playing me for a fool Tai?" While Rico's yelling, Tai's makes slight hand signal, which Agumon sees and moves; "These marks are real! This pain's real! It's real! And why are you trying to defend it?"

"It's probably just a dog Rico; there's lots of dogs around here. Were you being mean to it, as you always are?"

"It didn't look like no dog to me. It looked exactly like that toy, or what I thought was a toy, I found earlier. And do these look like dog marks?"

Tai smells Rico; "Ew. Rico, don't you ever shower?"

"Not unless my mother makes me. I'm a REAL man! The rest of you are wimps. Wait, don't change the subject."

"Rico, is that, have you been smoking again?"

"Quit changing the subject!"

"Go take a shower Rico, unless you want everybody to know you've been smoking cigarettes, then you'll be off the team and expelled from school. See you later."

"CIGARS! Cigarettes are for wimps. What? Hey Tai. How dare you threaten me! What's going on here?"

Tai just walks outs and slams the door in Rico's face. As soon as Tai's on the side of the cabin, Agumon appears and hugs his leg.

"Oh Tai. Thank you so much, I was…."

"Later. Let's scram." Tai picks up Agumon and they dash for the trees. Katherine makes it just in time to see them disappear.

Agumon hugs his partner tightly; "I'm so happy to see again. I've had such a hard day."

Agumon looks up, smiling, but the look on Tai's face doesn't look like a happy one.

Did you notice a couple of names in this chapter? Marcus and Thomas from Digimon Savors (Digimon Data Squad). That wasn't them of course, I just threw it in at the last minute.