He Does His Own Stunts, Kinda (MPC 38: Lights, Camera, You!)

Most people on the set were satisfied with how production was going. Filming was going at a decent clip, editing had been smooth, and the big fight was underway. However, a certain interloper was currently hacking into the main production computer. Having bio-emerged into the real world at news of a movie based on the Digital World, the Mediamon found itself very displeased with what it was current watching. "The park? Is that it?" it asked, voice laced with disbelief. "And they don't even have the budget for a real giant snake? Oh, these poor people must feel so deprived right now." It paced back and forth, rewatching the footage on wrist-mounted monitors, before its wide ears perked up.

"I know! I can help them out," he decided, aiming his visor at the screen. Slowly yet surely, he started analyzing the footage. "They're gonna be so happy with me for this!"

When shooting for the big fight was about to start, Mediamon remained hidden underneath the main production trailer. His visor remained laser-focused on a set of eight tennis balls, the focuses for Orochimon's writhing heads. Right now it looked less like a giant snake and the mobile someone would hang over a baby's crib, but he could fix that easily! Everyone would love how real the animation was, and the funny looking kid wearing nothing but spandex and ping pong balls was going to have such visceral reactions. It'd be perfect!

Speaking of spandex and ping pong balls, Isaac scratched irritably as the mocap suit he was currently wearing. "You didn't tell me this was going to bunch so much," he said, shooting an accusatory glare Akira's way. At least the two plastic rods he held in place of real swords made for good backscratchers, or else this would have really sucked.

"I didn't know!" he countered. "I got my start serving important people coffee, not cosplaying as a game of table tennis."

"Well, at least this is where the real fun begins," he said, smiling. He crossed his two "swords" together in a menacing X, shouting towards the stage crew "Alright, bring it on!"

Isaac hadn't seen how movie CGI was produced yet, but he didn't think it involved a red scanning line suddenly shooting onto the set. It targeted the tennis balls, moving up and down each as wire frames started to appear around them. In a process normally reserved for post-production editing, each ball was built into one of Orochimon's heads. The scanning laser continued, forming the serpent's long, writhing body. Isaac dropped his plastic rods in shock as he watched this, and the director frantically started shouting for someone to cut production. However, production of this Orochimon wasn't cutting. Polygons flooded into the wire frame, and soon Isaac found himself staring right up at the Eight-Headed Death God itself.

Thankfully, his time in the Digital World made Isaac quite adept at this sort of situation. He turned to Akira, shouting "Get everyone out of here, now!" Akira nodded, quickly shepherding everyone away as Isaac made a break for the trailers. If he could just get to his Digivice, everything would be okay.

Orochimon didn't seem too inclined to wait for him. It roared and rushed for the trailer, lifting it skyward just after Isaac dived inside. Two of its heads gripped it at each end, cracking the trailer in half and sending all of the contents within into the six hungry heads that remained beneath. This included computers, film reels, cameras, and Isaac himself. He clutched his Digivice tight to his chest, squeezing his eyes shut as one set of Orochimon's jaws snapped shut around him.

The head blinked in confusion as a pair of slashes echoed through the air. Its eyes then widened in shock as it slid in half cut into neat quarters through a cross slash from Samudramon. As soon as he made the cut Isaac leaped skywards, turning his sword into a bow and firing an arrow of phosphorous from it. The arrow sunk right into another one of Orochimon's heads, practically detonating it. With that show of force done Isaac landed, pointing his blades dramatically at Orochimon. "Flee, foul beast! My blades have tasted ichor far more vile than yours," he shouted, fully immersing himself in Elliot's cringeworthy dialogue.

Orochimon obliged, thrusting its six remaining heads forward and roaring at Isaac furiously. The six heads then proceeded to spew a noxious clear liquid from their mouths. Had this been any Digimon but one Isaac was accustomed to, he would have probably panicked trying to avoid it. Instead he charged through the attack, making sure to shut his mouth so he wouldn't ingest any of the sake. By the time he got to the other end he rammed one of Orochimon's heads with a vicious shoulder thrust, splintering it to pieces. Three down, five to go.

Unfortunately, those five heads gave Orochimon much more awareness than Isaac had. It reached up with its tail and struck Isaac down, firing a shower of bullets right into the downed Mega's back. The dark shots left a nasty sear on Samudramon's armor, but he was thankfully strong enough to still stand under the hail. He slashed with his sword to deflect a few of the dark shots, then leaped through the gap to impale the fourth of Orochimon's puppet heads. It let out a death rattle as the sword stabbed from its bottom jaw to its top jaw, phosphorous smoke rising from the wound.

By now the Orochimon realized it was in over its head and turned to flee, and at first Isaac seemed content to let it happen. He thrust his sword into the air in what seemed like a victory pose, watching and waiting as Orochimon slunk away. However, the blade he held to the sky slowly started to glow green. Atmospheric energy was flooding into it, slowly but surely empowering it. The blade was soon wreathed in green flames that extended out to five times its size, Isaac's eyes snapping open as his weapon finished charging. "You're not getting off that easy, fiend!" he shouted, leaping after Orochimon. With a shout of "Terra Blade!" he swung his weapon, cleanly decapitating the rest of Orochimon's four heads.

With nothing left to fight with, Orochimon slumped to the ground. However, rather than break into data as most Digimon did, it instead devolved back into a wire frame. Soon the wire frame had splintered apart, leaving only nine tennis balls sitting in a pool. Briefly Isaac looked around, heavily confused, before shrugging and disabling his Digimon form. Green flame washed over him, and now he was back to normal.

Production didn't regroup until the next day, and that was less of a regrouping and more of a cancellation. The stated reason was that all equipment had been destroyed with the trailer, and that without it they would have to restart the length filming process from Square One. However, it was clear that everyone was troubled by the emergence of such a foul beast, and the safest option would simply be to call the whole show off.

"Sorry about your break, kid," Akira said. "I've had a lot of movies cancel on me, but never really like that before."

"Eh, I'll find another chance sometime," Isaac said. Who knows? Might be sooner rather than later."

The Eight-Headed Death God never came out. However, in the Digital World, some very exciting footage of a Samudramon protecting the human world from a rampaging Orochimon was making quite a successful showing. Mediamon smirked as he counted the bits he was raking in. He didn't know why the humans needed to jump through all of these hoops to get a show going. After all, this was the easiest money he had ever made, and all it took was a giant Orochimon hologram.

Humans were weird.