Tai holds his breath as his coach stares at him; he's at a loss for words.
"Tai, Katherine, I saw both of you in the lake. I saw that big monster defeat that plant and shrink into this one. Who is he? Is he a digimon?"
Tai feels a lump in his throat, wondering who else might have seen them. Realizing he has no choice but to tell the truth, Tai lets out a huge siege and clears his throat.
"Yes ma'am. This is Agumon. He's my partner."
Nina's eyes widen in surprise. "Partner? How is he your partner?"
"That's a real long story. I've known him for almost 7 years now."
"Really?!" exclaims Nina, shocked. "What's he doing here?"
"That's my fault;" answers Agumon; "I hide in Tai's duffle bag. He didn't know. He thought I was at home."
"Do your parents know Tai?"
Tai nods; "Yes ma'am. He lives with us. My sister also has a digimon partner."
Nina's eyes widen, then looks at her niece. "Katherine, how long have you known about this?"
"Just since yesterday afternoon;" she answers.
"She found me in the luggage;" explains Agumon; "I didn't do a very good job pretending to be a stuffed animal."
"No you didn't;" agrees Tai.
Nina turns her back towards them, trying to process all this. The kids sit in silence. After a couple of minutes, Nina faces them once again. "So, he was the 'little guy' who forced me to pay for a ridiculous amount of food, as well as the reason all the snacks disappeared from the bus." Her look then softens a little; "Did he really save you? Is he really a friend... are those poison ivy rashes?"
Agumon was starting to feel very itchy and started scratching. He has red and white rashes breaking out all over his body.
"Agumon!" exclaims Tai; "What have you gotten into?"
"Oh, my goodness;" say Katherine; "He went through the poison ivy bushes when he smelled that pizza, the trap Rico set for him."
"AGUMON!"
The digimon blushes somewhat embarrassedly. "I was hungry. I couldn't just let it go to waste. Speaking of food, where is Rico?!"
"Agumon he's only been gone ten minutes;" answers Tai.
"TOO LONG!" Agumon pulls on Tai's shirt. "All that swimming exhausted me, then I digivolved and fought! I NEED SOMETHING GOOD TO EAT NOW!"
Nina rolls her eyes; "Is he always like this Tai?"
"Always."
"Aunt Nina;" Agumon asks; "do you have any food?"
"Aw just Nina, and no. What a minute, Rico knows?"
The kids look at each and slowly nod yes. "That was kind of my fault too;" explains Agumon, scratching; "OW! My skin feels like it's on fire!"
"Don't scratch;" Nina looks him over; "You also look like you've got some 1st and 2nd degree burns Agumon. Katherine, go get the stuff, and please take off those wet clothes."
"Yes ma'am." She leaves the cabin. Tai and Nina, wearing plastic gloves, restrain Agumon to keep him from scratching and tell him to take long, slow deep breaths to help with the pain.
"What stuff?" starts Tai, "oh that's right, you're allergic to poison, right Coach?"
Nina nods; "Bad, so is Katherine. She discovered those bushes last year and we had to take her to the hospital."
"Hey Coach;" says Tai; "Um, thank you so much for not getting angry, and for deciding to help Agumon."
Nina sieges. "Well, to tell you the truth Tai, I'm very skeptical of digimon."
"You don't have to be afraid of me Nina;" Agumon assures her; "I'm very friendly. Ravenous yea, but friendly."
Nina smiles. "I can tell. I know you saved Katherine, Agumon. And honestly Tai, I've trusted you more than just about anybody I've ever coached, despite your mischievousness. That's why I'm pleased Katherine has opened up to you. She rarely opens up to anybody. She also has a pheromonal good judge of character and I trust her completely. But Rico?"
"I know;" sieges Tai; "Not like we have a choice now unless we can erase his memory. Hey Coach, I don't mean to be nosy, but where are Katherine's parents? I've heard rumors. Is her dad some kind of business tycoon who's a lady's man. I really haven't heard anything about her mom except; she didn't abandon her daughter did she coach?" Tai then realizes he just asked a very sensitive question. "Oh, I'm sorry Coach. I should think before I say anything."
Nina sieges and takes a deep breath. "I'm aware of the rumors Tai, and it's really a private family matter. But yes, her father is extremely busy, in more ways than one. My sister has her own issues that I'd rather not discuss. Katherine's been with me since she was 2 years old. She's my whole world."
"Kat told me that her parents don't love her;" informs Agumon; "That's so sad. What about her brothers and sisters? Why aren't they living with you?"
Nina coughs and clears her throat. "Katherine and her half-siblings all have the same father, but several different mothers. She hasn't even met most of them. Danny's the only sibling she has any contact with. He lives in Tennessee with his mother. "
Tai can't believe what he's hearing and feels deep sympathy for Katherine.
They then here what sounds like Rico's loud and frustrated outside, along with a bunch of dogs barking. Tai picks outside and laughs. "Looks like a pack of yapping dogs is following Rico."
Agumon springs up. "FINALLY! FOOD!" Tai fights to restrain his famished partner from running out the door. Rico appears, along with what looks like 7 dogs bothering him.
"Get out of here! SHOO YOU MANAGY MUTTS!"
"They look pretty well groomed to me!"
"SHUT UP TAI!" yells Rico; "These stupid dogs won't leave me alone! I've already given them food!"
Tai laughs at that statement. Agumon gets loose from Tai's grip and jumps on Rico, trying to unzip his backpack. "GET OFF ME YOU RAVENOUS REPTILE! You're worse than these mutts."
They finally make it inside. Agumon dives into the backpack of snacks before Rico finishes unzipping it. Somehow Rico manages to wrestle some food away from the digimon and uses it to get the dogs out, then slams the door shut.
"Darn those stupid dogs, I hate them!"
"They seemed to like you;" giggles Tai.
"SHUT UP! What the...;" Rico feels a wet tongue licking his leg, it's a miniature dachshund. "HEY! I missed one!" He picks up the dog to throw him out, then he notices Nina.
"Coach?! What are you doing here? Are you here to discipline me some more? I told you I was sorry."
Nina shakes her head. "That's not why I'm here Rico. Just, thank you for helping Katherine, Tai, and Agumon here. I really appreciate it."
"Yea right. Hey dog, why are licking my rashes. Stop, that tickles." He opens the door and throws the dog out. "Hey, was that the same dog that swapped my hot dog from me last night then tried to chew on my cigarettes."
Nina hears that. "RICO, I thought warn you about...oh never mind. Now's not the...;" she pauses; "Rico, you are covered in poison ivy rashes. Katherine's bringing some special bath wash and calamine lotion. You need to soak in it. And Tai, you should take a shower and rob some of the lotion on your arms just in case."
"DARN! I forgot;" Rico barely fights the urge to scratch, then remembers to hand Tai the ice pack.
"Thanks man, I really need this."
"Yea yea."
Katherine returns with the stuff along with some dry clothes for the boys, she's also carrying the dachshund.
"Hey! I just throw that flea bag out of here!" yells Rico.
"These dogs don't have fleas. And his name's Oscar."
"How do you know?" asks Rico.
Katherine points to the red collar around the dog's neck with the word 'Oscar' on it. Rico feels dumbstruck. Nina fills the cabin tub for Agumon and tells Rico to use the tub in the next cabin. Tai heads for the showers. When Agumon is settled in the bath, Katherine is finally alone with her aunt.
"Aunt Nina, are you mad at me?"
Nina shakes her head. "No sweetie, I only wished you had told me about Agumon yesterday when you found him?"
"Would I have been allowed to play with him if I had?"
"Probably not. At least until I got to know him."
Just then, Nina's walkie talky that all the coaches have goes off. There's an emergency mandatory meeting for all the head coaches in the conference center. Dismayed but assuming what the meeting's about, Nina kisses her niece and tells her to stay near the cabins and with Tai and Agumon, then dashes out. Katherine checks on the digimon, who's half asleep in the tub with part of a candy bar still hanging from his mouth. She tickles him, he swallows the candy bar and smiles at her.
"How are feeling Agumon?"
"Better, still pretty hungry and a little itchy. That was hard work. I'm so out of shape."
"I'm sure you diet doesn't help."
Agumon freaks. "What diet? I ain't on no diet. Please don't mention that word."
Katherine smiles and gently pours water on Agumon's head. He splashes her back. "Oh Kat, I'm sorry, you just dried off."
She just smiles, splashing him again. As she swirls her hand around in the water, the liquid seems to be unnaturally following and raising out of the water along with her hand.
"Nice trick Kat;" says Agumon; "How are you doing that?" The girl, not having realized what she was doing, quickly removes her hand from the water. Suddenly, Oscar jumps into the tub, splashing them both. Katherine gets him out and tries to dry him off, only for the dog to jump back in and lick Agumon's face.
Twenty minutes later, Tai returns. With the bath water getting cold, he helps a somewhat pruned Agumon out of the tub, dries him off, and rubs calamine lotion all over him. The orange dinosaur feels much better now and a lot less itchy. Worn out, he flops onto the bed and falls asleep before his head hits the pillow. Tai also climbs on the bed and lays next to his digimon, with Katherine at the foot end, both exhausted as neither of them had much sleep the night before. Oscar also jumps onto the bed and makes himself comfortable.
Nearly an hour later, they are abruptly awakened by a bang on the door. Tai peaks out the peak hole, it's Rico, and opens the door. Rico is a sight, still half wet with dry clothes on and as wrinkled as a prune.
"Rico, how long where you in the tub?"
Rico looks annoyed; "I take long baths."
"Obviously;" smirks Tai; "Funny since you're always trying to avoid taking a shower."
"Shut up." Rico enters and closes the door; "I have a right to privacy you know. Anyway, I came back to tell you guys that everything's getting chaotic out there. Everybody's aware of the fight that took place and are going ballistic."
Tai's startled, he shouldn't be surprised. "What did they see, what are they saying?"
"Mostly about who to fear more, the digimon or the plants?"
Agumon's shocked to hear that. "The plants! The plants of course."
"And there's reports, or rumors, that there's even more carnivorous plants out there headed this way, maybe up to a dozen or more. The air force has been called in as well."
"Great!" says Tai exasperated; "Now this is really messed up! What are we suppose to do now? Everybody knows there's a digimon here. And what about those monster plants? Agumon barely beat that one."
"I wasn't at my strongest;" replies the dino; "But yea, that was tough. I don't have the power to digivolve to WarGreymon right now, and I'm not sure if I've got the energy to digivolve to MetalGreymon, or have long I could hold it. I'm out of shape, and I'm SO HUNGRY!"
Agumon sits down and rubs his forever grumbling stomach. Rico's annoyed; "And I though Tai was always famished."
Tai sticks his tongue out at his teammate, only for his own stomach to growl.
"Anyway;" says Rico; "I've got a plan. All the coaches are in a meeting with the administration and air force. They're bound to have information we could use, but they're supposedly behind a locked door that's heavily guarded."
He looks at Agumon intently, who's confused. "What are looking at me for?"
"You're the only one small enough to climb through the vents and spy on them."
"What a minute Rico;" says Tai; "You're not using Agumon for any of your schemes."
"You got a better idea Tai?"
The digi-destined shrugs his shoulder; "Well...no."
Rico kneels down towards the orange dino. "Listen Agumon, if you do this, I'll give you 5 large pizza pies."
"Five?" asks Agumon; "Only 5? You really don't know me, do you?"
Rico rolls his eyes. "10 extra larges."
"20 extra larges and 10 gallons of ice cream!"
"Done."
Agumon leaps up; "Great, let's go."
As the digimon runs out the door, Rico realizes he's been doped. "Why that little...!"
"Got ya good didn't he Rico?" laughs Tai.
"Shut up!"
With Agumon secured in Rico's backpack; the gang heads towards the administration building, where the meeting's supposedly taking place. Everything is beyond chaotic. Soldiers and policemen are trying to guide, or rather force everybody, to all go towards the cafeteria. Tai grabs Katherine's hand to keep her near him. Oscar is also following them, and to Tai's surprise, Rico picks up the dog after he yelps a couple times from being stepped on and kicked.
After fighting through the crazy chaos, they finally reach the administration building. They enter the front door into the main hallway, which is surprisedly empty. Agumon gets out of the backpack as Rico removes the vent cover, then just stands there looking at him.
"What are you waiting for, go!"
"What about those pizzas? I really need something to eat first."
"Vent first, pizzas second."
"FOOD first, vent second."
"Hold it;" Tai kneels down towards his partner; "Look Agumon, I'm hungry too. The sooner you do this, the sooner we can eat. Ok Buddy."
Agumon pauses for a second. "Well, ok Tai, but you'll owe me trips to the all-you-can-eat-buffets, as well as taking me to the food festival and cheesecake factory! Oh, and the movies, and that baseball game you promised."
Tai rolls his eyes; "Alright, I promise."
"And don't forget to call Mieko and take Kari and Gatomon and me out for ice cream."
"Alright already, GO!"
"Oh yea, your mom wants you to clean out all those old comic books under your bed and organize your messy closet."
"Why you..."
Agumon dashes away from Tai's grasp and climbs into the vent. It's Rico's turn to giggle. "He sure dose drive a hard bargain doesn't he Tai?"
"Boy, you know it."
Agumon crawls through the ventilation tunnels, they are dusty and cool, causing him to sneeze a few times. The first room he found was empty, the second one the vent was stuck and he couldn't get into it, so he keeps searching. Then the air condition comes on, the cold air hitting Agumon like icicles and he decides to get out. He enters another unoccupied room and waits for the air to go off, when suddenly the door opens and three people enter the room, closing the door behind them and locking it. Agumon remains hidden and it isn't long before he realizes that these people dressed in camp counselor shirts, a young lady and two young men older than Tai, one tall and skinny and the other shorter and average, are talking about the plants. The lady says her old man's probably committed suicide by now and that they should move forward as planned. She holds up a shiny silver stick thingy and threatens to call her 'babies' again if they don't move quickly. The two guys seem frightened of her and quickly leave the room, the shorter one grabbing the taller one by the ear and aggressively pulls him out.
After they leave, Agumon jumps in front of the lady, startling her. "Alright, tell me about those plants!"
"What is this, some kind of military interrogation trick?"
"No trick, tell me what you know. How many of those do we have to fight and how do we stop them?"
The woman just sneers at him; "What makes you think I'd tell you kid?"
"Pepper Breath;" Agumon hits her hand, burning it and causing her to drop her stick. She clutches her hand in pain and gives Agumon an ugly look.
"Now you know I mean business! Talk or I'll hit you again."
The woman sneers. "Very well, but you'll regret it." She puts her good hand into her pocket and seems unfazed by her burnt one. "The Audrey's happen to be the brain genius of me and my father. They are my 'babies'. And if you had anything to do with the murders of my two babies, you and the military are going to pay dearly for it."
Agumon's shocked by what he's hearing. "What do you mean murdered? They're plants who are eating people!"
"And you'll be their next victim little creature!" She takes out a whistle and blows it. Agumon attempts to attack her again when the door suddenly opens and to Agumon's horror, two plants, about human size, walk in. The woman picks up her her stick and starts playing the most awful tune the digimon's every heard. One of the plants attack, Agumon attacks back and hits the plant right in the bloom, distracting it just long enough for him to climb back into the vent and get away, barely avoiding the grasp of the other.
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At the Kamiya residence, the ladies are preparing for dinner while Susumu watches the news. The phone rings and he answers it. "Yes, this is he. What, what do you mean? Is Tai safe? Tell me, what's going on? Hello, hello!" Susumu angrily slams the phone down. The ladies look at him stunned, for Susumu Kamiya almost never loses his temper, even towards his children (and digimon) when they've done something wrong.
"Honey, what's wrong?" ask Yuuko; "Who was that?"
"It was the camp. They said they are on total lock down and the military's there."
"The military!" gasp Yuuko; "Why? Is it another digimon attack?"
Susumu sieges. "They didn't say. They're trying to get all the children in one space and are working on evacuations plans. That's all they would say."
Kari looks worried. "I wonder if it's related to the missing people from the area?"
Her parents look at her; "What missing people?"
Kari and Gatomon explain about the news article they saw earlier. Susumu gets on his laptop and searches for news. He enters a chat room from that area. Entries are going so fast that he can't keep up, however, he catches stuff about giant plant-like monsters eating people and animals and causing chaos. Finally, an uploaded photo appears. Susumu clicks on the photo to enlarge it, and they are applauded at what they see.
"WHAT...IS...THAT?" goes Yuuku.
"That's not a digimon!" exclaims the cat-like digimon.
Kari looks at her partner; "Gatomon."
"Right. Gatomon digivolve too...Angewoman."
"Kari wait;" says Yuuko.
"Mom, I have to go. They need our help, I just know it."
"It's not that;" Yuuko hands her daughter her jacket; "It's getting rather chilly outside."
Kari rolls her eyes; "Oh Mom."
Mr. and Mrs. Kamiya watch as their girls fly off. While they are used to their children's exploits and know they can take care of themselves, they still worry about their kids, all four them.
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Tai paces up and down the hallway, banging on the vent waiting impatiently for Agumon to return.
"Tai."
"What?" he snaps at Katherine, then catches himself. "I'm sorry Katherine, I'm just nervous that's all. Agumon has a tendency for goofing off."
"You know, Rico's been sitting on the front porch steps for the past 15 minutes."
Tai looks toward the front glass door and sees what she means. He hadn't even noticed that Rico was no longer inside. He goes outside and sees that Rico is petting Oscar, who's laying in his lap.
"I thought you didn't like dogs;" Tai smirks.
Rico shrugs his shoulders. "Yea well though I'd humor him."
"You don't need to put on the Mr. Tough Guy face;" Tai sits next to him. "Look Rico, I realize it now, I'm sorry for all those jokes I made and pranks I played on you when you first transferred to our school. I was a bit jealous I'll admit, but we always play crazy tricks on all the new guys. I really didn't stop to think that you'd take it all the wrong way. I'm really sorry about that."
"It's a little late to apologize Tai;" Rico looks away.
"Come on, let's give it a fresh start. Let's be friends."
"I don't need friends."
Tai's heard that somewhere before. "But everybody needs friends, even Matt admits that."
Rico looks at him. "Look Tai, I use you guys and you use me. I'm a hopeless student and soccer's all I've got. At the end of the day everybody gets what they want, and all are happy. Let's leave it at that."
"But you're not happy."
Rico turns his back to Tai. "I don't want to talk about it. That's just how the real-world works. People use you, get what they want, and kick you too the curve. That's why I've got no friends and I don't want any. At the end of the day, you can't trust anybody but yourself."
Tai can hear it in his voice that Rico's lying. "But you trust us, don't you? I mean, you're trying to help us. You tried to save Agumon and Katherine earlier, and you've helped me too, so you obviously care. We'll be your friends if you let us."
"I told you I don't need..." Rico pauses as Oscar starts barking at the building. People have appeared in the hallway, and it sounds like a commotion. Oscar keeps barking and waggling his tell furiously.
"What's going on?" wonders Tai when Katherine dashes out the door with Agumon, who's out of breath and looks to be in a panic."Agumon, what's wrong?"
"There's trouble Tai! Hurry, let's scram, I'll tell you about it."
The group takes shelter behind some trees as Agumon explains what happened.
"YOU DID WHAT?!" Tai grabs his digimon and pins him against the tree. "Seriously Agumon, who else are you going to reveal yourself too? We're going to have a serious talk later."
"Cut him some slack Tai;" intervenes Rico, who's actually quite pleased with the digimon actions. "What happened after you attacked this lady?"
Agumon quickly explains, Tai's stunned with shock. "You mean to tell us that the lady said she and her father made these things, and she actually seemed to be controlling them?"
"Those were her words;" assures Agumon. "She also said we murdered her babies, and that we and the military are going to pay for it. Don't know why she calls them her babies."
Tai slaps him head. "Great, a looney lady who may be controlling who knows how many of these things, and who cares more about those murderous plants human lives. What are we supposed to do now? We've never dealt with a non-digital threat before."
"Agumon defeated that one plant with that giant fire ball;" Katherine reminds them; "And the military killed the one yesterday with bombs."
Tai snaps his figures. "That's a start. Agumon, can you digivolve to MetalGreymon?"
"I'll certainly try, no, I will, but you're right Tai. We don't know how many we need to defeat, and I certainly can't take them all out by myself."
Tai takes out his cell phone and tries to call for help, but it has no service, neither do Rico's nor Katherine's, except for in and out local service. They head for the pay phones, unfortunately, the lines for all six phones seem miles long.
"Good grief!" says Rico, "Is every sissy trying to call home?"
"There are phones in the offices;" says Katherine; "but they only let nonadministrative staff and campers use them for emergencies."
"This is an emergency!" says Tai. They go back to the administrative building, however, guards are posted outside and threatens to escort them under guard to the cafeteria if they don't go there immediately. Walking away, they try to discuss what to do next, only to realize that Agumon has disappeared.