"But I'd just found the tank! I was just about to -"

"-join us for another hand of cards, right?"

Izzy breathed heavily, squeezing his eyes shut, then shook his head once or twice. When he opened his eyes, his usual calm expression had returned.

"It's a real shame we don't have another deck," said Izzy, "we could have played Canasta."

Joe glanced at Tai, TK and Mimi. "Do you really think these guys could handle playing Canasta? I mean, Tai even has trouble understanding Snap."

"I didn't have TROUBLE understanding!" snapped Tai, "I just got... confused."

Matt snorted. "I remember that. We were playing back at summer camp. Sora chose Snap because she thought it was the only game Tai could handle."

"That wasn't the reason," said Sora, sounding annoyed.

"Well, I think Snap is right out," said Joe, "it was bad enough playing with you guys. You almost broke my hand. Just think what it would be like if 14 people and Digimon tried to slap their hands - or paws, or claws, or flippers, or wings, or whatever else - down on the cards at once. It's bad enough having Tai do that thing where he jumps up from his chair to yell "snap" and practically throws his whole body weight onto the cards and whoever's hands are on there already. I sure don't want Biyomon's claws impaling me, or Tentomon's 'hands' doing me permanent damage, or..."

"Joe, nobody's listening to you again," said Gomamon.

Joe sweatdropped. It seemed the others had lost interest in playing cards. TK and Patamon were trying to build a card tower. Mimi was brushing her hair. Tai and Sora were playing catch with TK's 'lucky stone'. Matt was trying to convince Izzy that he wouldn't break the computer if Izzy let him try whatever game he'd been playing.

He sighed and leaned back against the wall. Then Tai tried to respond to Sora's throw by spiking the stone like a volleyball. The result was an upset Tai clutching his wrists and screaming in angry pain, and the stone falling to rest at Joe's feet. Joe picked it up and looked at it.

"Go on, Joe," said Gomamon, "throw it!"

So Joe did, and Sora tossed it back, and soon *they* were playing catch too. 

It was probably a good thing that stone was not very big, because over the course of the next half hour it hit darn near everyone in that cave, and soon they were all playing.

'Catch' soon evolved into a game of Tai's devising - always a worry! - some sort of odd cross between lacrosse, basketball and rugby.

"C'mon, Joe!" called Tai as he scooped up the rock in Sora's helmet. Matt tackled him and he threw the helmet through the air. Joe moved to catch it, tripped, and Sora - who was on the other team - caught it instead.

"Joe!" complained Tai, "my grandmother can play better than you!"

Sora snorted. "Tai, *your* grandmother can play better than any of us!"

She ran, jiggling the helmet as she went so that the stone bounced up and down in it. Just then, Izzy ran in with TK's hat, catching the stone in midair to get it himself. He ran back downfield.

Joe groaned to himself. "This is the stupidest game ever invented."

"Hey, I invented it," said Tai, running to cover for Izzy.

"Say no more," said Matt.

"Hey, what was that?!" yelled Tai, and tackled him.

"Hey, *I* didn't have the rock! That's against the rules! I - oh fine, eat rock!"

The other players stopped and sweatdropped as Matt and Tai started wrestling again.

"Oooh!" said TK, "let's play WWF!"

Sora grinned. "Sounds fun to me!" She grunted theatrically and then dove at TK, although she was careful not to use all her strength. TK squealed with laughter and latched onto her leg, trying to pull her over.

"Ew, I am not playing this game, I'll get all dirty again," said Mimi delicately, and sat down out of the way.

"Me too. I'm sure they're going to break some bones or something. And then what'll we do? Out here in the middle of nowhere with no doctor and -" Joe was moving to sit down next to Mimi, when something flew at his stomach and bowled him over.

"Oof," he wheezed, winded, "Izzy?! What's the idea?!"

Izzy looked sheepish. "It wasn't my fault, *those* two -" he gestured at Gomamon and Tentomon "-pushed me."

"Come on, you two, act like boys!" said Gomamon and Tentomon in enthusiastic unison.

Izzy and Joe glanced at each other, and then, of one accord, each lunged at their respective Digimon.

Mimi and Palmon sat side by side, Mimi examining her fingernails. "Palmon, do you ever feel like we're the only *normal* people here?"

"Mimi, can't we join in?"

Mimi sweatdropped. "Traitor."

Patamon and TK were both flying at Sora, who was laughingly trying to fend them off, Izzy was jumping up to try to grab at Tentomon, who flew, infuriatingly, *just* out of the short boy's reach, Tai and Matt were a flying tangle of arms and legs, Agumon, Gabumon and Biyomon were shoving each other playfully. Joe ran past Mimi and Palmon, right on Gomamon's tail, just about to catch him.

Mimi and Palmon grinned evilly. "Poison Ivy!" cried Palmon, tripping Joe up.

"Hey!" he shouted.

"Thanks, Palmon!" called Gomamon, laughing a lot.

Joe was just standing up when he was knocked down again. He looked up into a mock-evil expression of Mimi's.

"Mimi?!"

TK skidded out of Sora's way and landed on the two of them. Mimi and Joe smirked at each other and started tickling him. Sora dove into the fray and the four kids' Digimon all came to TK's defense, targeting their partners. Soon everyone was involved in a huge tickle-fight.

And chaos reigned.

Suffice to say that by the end of their 'relaxing day', they all ended up far more battered and tired than in a day of hiking and battling Etemon. Yet none of them complained about that. (Well, Joe complained a little. And Mimi. And Izzy. And - oh, okay, most of them had something to say.) 




That game evolved into a bizarre, improvised ball game of Tai's devising, which in turn evolved into a huge wrestling match (prompted by Matt and Tai, of course), which in turn somehow turned into truth or dare.

After everyone was unconvinced by Matt's response to his 'truth' questions, and Tai got mad at Sora for an unreasonable 'dare', and Mimi complained about anything she was given, and Joe said it was dangerous for him to play such a game at all, and Izzy argued the merits of performing his 'dare' for about ten minutes, they all decided to take a lunch break.