Clash of the Titans (MPC 38: All The Me I Could Be)

It was as if the Ogrelords' world had come crashing down in front of them. Did something that was ultimately a bigger, stronger, and way cooler version of themselves just show up on their doorstep for the sole purpose of calling them losers? The three of them remained kneeling their in stunned silence, only the crashing of waves and laughing of today's guest. Finally, Ogremon broke the quiet. "Oi, you. What's your name?" he asked. His voice was little more than a whisper, and their guest had to lean in exaggeratedly while cupping his ear to properly hear. "What's your name?" Ogremon repeated, a bit more securely this time.

"Do you really gotta ask that? Just look at me!" the newcomer bellowed, flexing once more for good measure. "I'm the great and powerful Titamon!"

Ogremon rose to his full height, looking the hunched-over Titamon dead in the eyes. Between Ogremon's proportionally large head and Titamon's proportionally tiny one, they were just about equal. "Well, Titamon. If you're looking for losers, you've picked the wrong three guys to mess with," Ogremon said. He whipped out their Jurassic Deathmatch titles, admiring his reflection in its golden gleam. " 'Cause losers ain't packing undisputed, year-long championship reigns, are they?"

"Ha! I wrestle the gods themselves," Titamon boasted, whipping a much larger championship belt off of his waist. He tossed it down into the seas below, kicking up enough force to make a small tidal wave. Hyogamon and Fugamon quickly scrambled away to try and avoid it, flailing their clubs in a panic. "You call that pinky ring a prize?"

"Yeah! 'Cause it shows even when everyone's against us, we ain't gonna give in. We ain't gonna back down. And that's not gonna change just 'cause your big, ugly mug showed up! Boys, you know what time it is?" Ogremon bellowed, standing up on his tiptoes just to better stare Titamon down.

"I'll get the nets!" Fugamon said, running into the splintered ruins of their shack.

"I'll call the babes!" Hyogamon said, pulling a stolen D-Terminal out of his pants and typing in a few words.

"The babes never show up, you ignoramus!" Fugamon protested, slapping the computer out of his hands. "Get the ball and make yourself useful!"

"It's time for some beach volleyball!"

The battle lines were drawn quite quickly. On one end of the beach stood the Ogrelords, doing push-ups, sit-ups, and jumping jacks to try and limber themselves up for the upcoming struggle. On the other end of the beach stood Titamon, who was currently blotting out the setting sun. The flickering lights of tiki torches and pale blue glow of ancestral ogre spirits lit the darkened beach up, but overall it remained quite dusky. Occasionally the earth seemed to quake as Titamon impatiently tapped his foot on the ground, but for the most part it was eerily quiet on the beach. Once their warm-ups were finished the Ogrelords rose to their full height, striking one last team pose in front of the nets.

"Coursing River!"

"Great Typhoon!"

"Raging Fire!

This one's for all the cred, boys! Don't show him any mercy!"

They broke the pose, each scattering to their respective parts of the volleyball court. Fugamon was first up, the team's stable core. He punched the ground so hard that a fist of stone smashed through the sands, sending the ball spiraling into the air. Next was Hyogamon, the bridge between his two feuding brothers. He leaped into the air slightly as he knocked the ball upwards, spiraling it very high into the air. The two then ran forward as Ogremon ran back at them, hands extended to catch him. He leaped onto their shoulders, then sprung off, soaring so high in the air that he could look Titamon right in the eye. Letting out an uproarious laugh he smashed the ball downwards, setting it ablaze as he spiked it right at Titamon. This was their patented Ogre Spiker, a forbidden volleyball technique that had knocked out countless Digimon in the past. Nobody they had ever met was left standing when faced with such a blow!

It bounced off of Titamon's chest with a sad deflating sound, rebounding right off and landing into the Ogrelords' side of the court. Beyond a tiny little sear on his left pec, Titamon looked completely unphased. "Okay," he said, grinning hugely. "My turn!" He bent over to pick up the ball between his index finger and thumb, eyeing it carefully before flicking it down at the Ogrelords.

Hours later, the Ogremon woke up in the center of a giant crater. A few sharp kicks to the ribs from Fugamon made sure of that. "Oi, get up!" he shouted. "We got our pustules handed to us. Still feeling one heck of a hangover from it all."

"The heck happened? We totally had him," Ogremon protested. "I'm sure if we hit him with the Spiker again . . ."

"That's what happens when you play against someone so titan-ic," Hyogamon chided, helping Fugamon help Ogremon up. As he laughed over his own pun, Ogremon and Fugamon slammed him in the gut with a pair of punches. "Okay, I deserved that one," he wheezed.

Slowly, Ogremon craned his neck over to the edge of the crater. A giant scroll seemed to be spilling over into their resting place. Briefly, Ogremon sniffed the air. Crayon? Where the heck did anyone get a crayon that big? "You two, go check that out," Ogremon said. "I need another day or five."

Hyogamon and Fugamon jostled and shoved each other as they ran to the note, competing to see who would get their first. Eventually Hyogamon took the lead, summoning an ice slick for Fugamon to slip on so that he could make it to the note uncontested. "Ha! Gotcha," Hyogamon shouted, laughing as he ducked beneath a rock that Fugamon flung at him. "Lessee . . .

You losers aren't dead. Not bad. It was funny hearing you shriek like little girls when I slammed the ball in your faces. Let me know if you ever need your butts kicked again.
-Titamon."

Slowly Ogremon stepped forward to examine the note, a fire sparking in his eyes. "Well! Looks like this challenge ain't over yet," Ogremon said, cracking his knuckles, hips, and neck. "I want you two training 'til your arms fall off! The next time Titamon comes around, we're gonna show him what we're really made of!

Rebuilding the shack should be a nice start. Chop chop! Get on it!"

Fugamon and Hyogamon sighed as they looked at the sawdust that was once their home, as well as the crater that was once their fine beachfront property. This was going to need a lot of fixing . . .