Avenger2003: The chapters will be progressively longer as the story goes on. That's my philosophy; to start off with a short chapter, then progressively try to top each one as the story continues.

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Noah tried to focus on the book he was reading, but the oddity that was the Doctor kept drawing his attention. He looked over at the boy in the blue suit, who was rummaging in his suitcase.

He pulled out a large trench coat, which he hung on the post of his bunk bed. What was odd about this was the fact that the trench coat was not folded up; the Doctor had merely picked up the coat as if there was already a hook holding it up in his case.

The Doctor then snapped his suitcase closed, put it carefully under his bed, and then sat down on the bottom bunk, apparently waiting patiently for something.

It was around this point that the Doctor noticed that nearly everyone in the room was staring at him.

"What's up?", said the Doctor, nonchalantly.

"Oh, um, are you really a doctor? Like, a real-life doctor?", said Owen, trying to be casual.

"Sure am.", said the Doctor.

"That's cool! You must be like a prodigy or something. What are you a doctor of?"

The Doctor pretended not to hear Owen. "So, what parts of Canada are you guys from?"

Noah, Trent, and Owen all gave appropriate answers, except for Justin.

"I'm not actually from Canada, man.", he said, doing his eyebrows with makeup. "I'm from the States; Hawaii, to be exact."

He turned to look at the Doctor. "I'm guessing you're from Britain."

"No.", he said simply, causing more glances from his teammates.

Trent decided to penetrate the conversation. "Well, where do you live?"

"Nowhere, really. I just travel around, seeing new places, revisiting old places."

"What… what about your parents?"

The Doctor looked Trent straight in the eye for a moment, then looked away. "They… died some time ago."

"Wow, that sucks, man.", said Trent, sympathetically.

"Yes, it does.", said the Doctor. Suddenly, an ear-splitting scream filled the air outside. The Doctor jumped to his feet. "Now, that's more my style.", he said, grabbing his trench coat.

In a matter of seconds, the Gopher boys were at the girls' side, watching as the teenagers went wild over a tiny cockroach.

Finally, Duncan hefted an axe to split the bug in two. Noah then heard a high-pitched whirring coming from somewhere. No one else seemed to notice it, as at that moment the axe head went flying off Duncan's handle, and embedded itself in the opposing wall.

Noah looked around, and saw the Doctor putting an odd, metal cylinder in his pocket. The cockroach scampered away into a hole in the floor.

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After what could charitably be called lunch, the Bass and the Gophers soon found themselves walking through the woods towards the eastern side of the island.

Noah tried to make conversation with that Cody kid, but the Doctor kept bugging him some more. He trailed off at the back of the group, pretending to look around at the beautiful scenery. That is, when he was not outright disappearing completely from the group, then returning minutes later as if nothing had happened.

Around the fifth time this happened, Noah finally stayed behind to see what the strange kid was doing. He waited impatiently for the Doctor to show up again. Finally, Noah began searching through the foliage.

Eventually, the Doctor reappeared from the forest, walking nonchalantly with his hands in his trench coat pockets.

"Where the heck were you?", said Noah, accusingly.

"Oh, I just saw an interesting toad.", said the Doctor, completely straight-faced.

"You saw… an interesting toad.", said Noah, slowly.

"It could've been a frog.", he said, shrugging.

Noah stared at him for a while, then turned back to the pathway. The Doctor brushed past him, which was all fine and good, because Noah wanted to hang back to see what he had been up to.

He looked through the forest, until he finally saw something worthwhile. A strange, blinking, red light appeared on a nearby tree. Noah reached forward, and pulled a strange device off of the trunk. He stared at it, then turned to look at the Doctor's retreating back.

Little did Noah know, but another, equally strange figure was watching from deep within the forest.