The King is in da house! Now is the time that Po shall take on a villain not seen or heard from since Robert was Dragon. I know most of you would like to know this "Man of Fate", and so you shall! The Wolverine debuted Friday and I loved every single second of it! He's, like, one of the most coolest Marvel heroes ever, next to Spidey that is. But enough about that. I sincerely apologize if I've taken too lone and if the chap itself is a little too long. Everyone knows who owns what and who doesn't, so there! Now, with all that said and done; one with the show!

Chapter 12: Changes Pt. 4: Fate

It was a week later from the incident at the Wellington International building on a Saturday morning that Dragon was on his daily routine in patrolling the city. As he did so, his mind went back to the night of the party and how Commissioner Speakman called him a friend. Coming from someone who's basically a "modern legend" in a city that was once full of corruption, it meant more than a lot. But then there was the problem with the son of the "modern legend", who was the best friend of the alter ego of Dragon by the way, had recently found out he was the new Dragon. Of course, there would be no way to talk around the situation because the German shepherd was smarter than most athletes at school; being the child of law enforcement pays off sometimes. In fact, he could still remember the Saturday last week when he brought it up with Robert and Amber . . .

FLashback

Back at the Glover Residence were Po, Robert, Amber, and Jeff, sitting in the den and enjoying some chocolate-chip cookies (courtesy of the cougar). It came to a shock when the panda revealed that the German shepherd had found out about his new double life, one of High School student, Po Ping and the other as the new guardian, Dragon. Po then went on to explain on how he found the Eternal Ember, the Eternal Ember's back story and how it was Dragon's power source and it was the reason the Furious Five came into existence, how he managed to bust the ScaleZ (which quipped the canine's attention), how he managed to stop the heist with the Raptorz (Which he wasn't proud off), about facing Devil's Trigger and the so-called "Furious Five" (much to the dog's surprise), up to the part where he got to the party. What really got to Jeff was the part where the torch was officially passed to Po by the previous Dragon, but didn't the panda find the Eternal Ember in . . . Robert's . . . study . . ? Wait a minuet . . .

"Hold on, that means Robert . . ." Jeff murmured as he looked between his best friend and best friend's legal guardian, then donned a look of shock. "Omigod! You're . . . or were . . ."

"Emphases on was." Robert calmly replied. "As in "not anymore"."

"B-but . . . the Dragon died . . ."

"So?"

"And you're sitting right here, right now . . ."

"Your point being?"

"Well, what happened nine years ago?" Jeff question in confusion. "I mean, you were Empire City's famed guardian, the leader of his own group of heroes, and the one person who made a difference . . ."

"I know!" Robert snapped angrily, but as soon as he calmed he saw the frightened expressions on his adopted son, German shepherd, and wife. "Sorry, but that's a story I'd prefer to put on hold for now."

"Okay . . ."

"I'm sorry I had to snap like that, that day, years ago, it was something that no living soul should ever go through . . ."

The three noticed that he looked unusually sick, which was highly unfitting for someone of his image. Apparently whatever happened during the hostage situation at Wellington International years ago had really burned him up something bad, though it was hard to say what had happened exactly. The grizzly saw that the three were looking at him with concern, which made him shake off what was bothering him.

"Besides, the city's in good hands and I completely trust that Po has what it takes, though he still has ways to go, I know he's just the thing Empire City needs." The grizzly stated wholeheartedly.

"I'll say, but there's something else that needs to be done." Amber spoke up in a serious tone. "Jeff, you may be Po's best, but now that you know about Dragon, your life might e at risk."

"Here it comes . . ." Jeff sighed.

"Amber's right, since you know Po's secret, you'll be in frequent danger." Robert added seriously. "But we're not without reason, you must swear that you'll not tell a living soul and take this secret to the grave."

"I swear . . . one condition."

"You want in." Po deduced almost instantly.

"You can." Amber added with a knowing smirk.

"Ah ha! I knew you'd say that . . . wait, what was that?" Jeff asked in confusion.

"Jeff, we've seen enough crime movies and know you all too well, plus we knew one of you guys would figure it out sooner or later." Robert replied, stood up, and walked over to the canine as he shook his hand. "Though this also means you can never, in all your life, tell your father, welcome to the crew."

"Awesome, so, when do I start?"

End Flashback

"Well, at least I got some back up." Dragon shrugged, jumping from building to building.

On the streets below, watching Dragon hopping building to building, was a wolf that appeared to be in his late-twenties. He had an average build with black fur, short black hair, pointed ears and muzzle, and dark-red eyes. He wore a red polo shirt, black jeans that were held up by a brown leather belt, and black Nikes. He look on in astonishment as the hero vanished behind some buildings.

"Wow, there really is another Dragon, who knew?" The wolf asked no one in particular. He the looked to his right and saw a person at a café with a book with the headings "Cross-dressing for Dummy's". "Okay, disturbing, I'd get a drink if it weren't so early."

After jumping a few buildings, Dragon found a good place to rest and took out a water bottle as he took a few sips.

"This is a really nice view, don't you think?"

"Hello, Annie." Dragon sighed as he looked to his right to see the white dressed figure of Annie.

"Hello, Po, how are you this fine evening?" The collie replied with a sweet and pleasant smile.

"Well, aside from seeing a strange woman appear to me and knows everything about both my identities (whilst I know less about her), I'm actually quite alright, thank you for asking. How are you today?"

"Oh, I'm fine, just enjoying the sight and sounds of the city . . . oh, you have company coming, I'll be right back."

"Wait, company, what do you . . ?" Dragon question, but saw that the canine had vanished like she and Yao did back at the party. " . . . mean . . "

"See, I knew we'd find him!"

This made Dragon freeze at first, but calmed himself, feeling that it would be pointless to run or hop away. he slowly turned around to see the group that called themselves the new so-called Furious Five. Unbelievable, all he wanted was a nice quiet patrol right before he went thug-bustin', was that so wrong? From what he saw, they were looking at him with bemused expressions and a glare from iron Tigress, obviously they heard the news about the party. He also sensed that there was a feeling of disgust as they looked through him; the feeling was mutual.

"Like I said, if we just circle around the city, we'd find him in no time." Steel Monkey stated.

"Oh, great it's you guys, here I thought it was going to be steady." Dragon sighed, then full turned around to face them. "Look, I quite busy at the moment, so I'll make it quick, what do you want?"

"We have a bone to pick with you!" Brass Mantis spoke out.

"We've heard about the party at Wellington International." Silver Crane said in an oddly calm voice. "And how Comissioner Speakman spoke highly of you."

"You're point being?" Dragon asked, not wanting to waste any time in stalling.

"Our point is, just because you took down those Nite Shadowz and have it good with the Commissioner doesn't make you better than any one else, mainly us!" Iron Tigress yelled.

"I don't, I think people like the police, doctors, and fire fighters are the real heroes in this city. But now that you've brought up the subject about the party, I think you're all just jealous because I was actually helping people, some of which were able to fend for themselves, and stopped a groups of thugs who were trying to rob and hurt everyone there, while other so-called "heroes" were too lazy to even bother to show up!"

"Okay, first off: we didn't even know what was going on." Bronze Viper protested.

"Second of all: how did you know that those trash bags were going to be there in the first place?" Steel Monkey demanded, wondering that for a good while.

"That's a need-to-know basis, which in your case means: none of your beeswax!" Dragon shouted, then turned around to leave. "I don't have time for this, goodbye, I hope to elude you guys more in the future."

"Where're you going, we're not done with you!" Silver Crane said as he and his comrades began to follow Dragon.

"Well, I'm done with all of you, plain and simple!"

And Dragon would have gone into a full sprint to get away from them if it weren't for a certain female collie that had reappeared right in front of him.

"Okay, that will need some serious getting use to." Dragon said sarcastically, not really use to have people he knows nothing about appear to him. "Look, I'm in the middle of ditching these posers, can we talk later?"

"Unfortunately, we can't." Annie replied grimly.

"Um, excuse us, ma'am?" Bronze Viper spoke up, which shocked Dragon. "Sorry to bother you, but we have something to discuss with this person."

"No we don't." Dragon replied, then realized something. "Hold on you can see and her this person."

"Well, doy, she's a female collie in a white dress." Steel Monkey replied bitterly. "Come to think about it, where'd she come from?"

"Pretty sure there was no one else here, besides this guy." Brass Mantis added as he and his comrades.

"How could . . . are you doing the same thing to them that you're doing to me?" Dragon question.

"If you mean communicating, then, yes." Annie replied, which confused the Five.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Iron Tigress asked, becoming very suspicious.

"And what do you "communicate"?" Silver Crane added, equally as suspicious.

"I know you all have a lot of question, Dragon having more than any one, but there's no time to . . ." The collie suddenly stopped as her ears twitched and eyes widened, which really started to worry the six heroes. " . . . Too late . . . he's here . . ."

Before any of the six could say anything else, Dragon suddenly became stiff, looked around, then flipped over as a large missile barely missed him. Seeing Dragon dodge the explosive projectile caused the Five to jump back a few feet. No one was out of the woods just yet as the projectile reached a certain height, then blew up. Fortunately, the heroes were able to take as everyone on the grounds below took notice and froze where they stood.

"The hell?!" Steel Monkey shouted i confusion. "What was that?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe something like a missile!" Dragon shouted sarcastically.

"We could see that, but the real question is where it came from." Sliver Crane spoke up, looking around to find the source of where the missile came from.

"That would be me."

The six whirled around to see who had just spoke, but found no one else on the roof around, not even Annie. It was then that Brass Mantis look upwards and gasped, gaining the attention of his comrades and Dragon, who also looked up and were met by an extraordinary sight. Floating in the air was a machine-like figure that was no larger that fifteen feet tall, crimson colored armor, larger powerful-looking arms, jets on the back and legs, squinted yellow lenses on the helmet, and a black capital "F" on the middle of its chest. Was it just them, or did it feel as though the six were in a science-fiction movie . . . Both, definitely both.

"Well, lo and behold, I was actually expecting to come face to face with the "new" Dragon himself." The figure spoke in a metallically warped voice. "Though I admit, you've all saved me the time of searching for all of you, Furious Five."

"And you would?" Dragon inquired.

"Isn't it obvious?"

"Well, it's freaky that there's a type of robot floating right in front of us and it's not even Friday. If you were here yesterday, it would have been a "Freaky Friday", get it? It would have gone great with that F on your chest, but that not was it's for, is it?"

"No, it is not, that was very much hilarious the way you've made it sound, but that's not what it stands for." The figure replied, lowering itself to meet the group, which made them up their guard in case the "machine" tried anything. "I am he who is of the highest intelligence, the one who will show to the world the you so-called superheroes are naught but a con, I am Fate!"

"Hold up, rewind, you're Fate?" Dragon questioned looking up the machine-person up and down. "As in the high-tech supervillain that was from decades ago?"

"The very same."

"Aren't you a little, I don't know, big to be that guy?" Silver Crane questioned skeptically.

"Yeah, if you're really Fate, what up with the new look?" Steel Monkey added, just as skeptically.

"Well, it's simple, everything in this city was changing, from technology to superheroes." Fate merely replied. "That's when it came to me: if everything else changes over the years, why not add some changes to my armor as well?"

"Well, now you have your new look, I suppose you're going to use it to hurt people?" Iron Tigress growled, glaring at the armored figure.

"That depends . . ."

"On what?" Bronze Viper demanded.

"Are you all willing to admit defeat and reveal your true identities for the public to see?"

"Okay, how about . . . Never on your computer brain metal mouth!" Brass Mantis shouted.

"Very well, prepare to meet your dome." Fate stated, adjusting himself for combat.

"What?" Dragon questioned in confusion allowing Fate to realize the error in his vocabulary.

"I mean your '"doom" . . . doom, yes . . ."

"Oh yeah, you and who's army!" Steel Monkey challenged.

"Not so much an army, but I'm so glad that you've asked."

As Fate said that, a large group of machine soldiers appeared along side the mechanical figure in the same fashion. Each soldier appeared similar to Fate only they were half the size, had fewer weapons, and lacked that type of arms that Fate had. If anyone had a calculator or abacus, they would have counted at least thirty-five, thirty-six if you added Fat to the mix. The six heroes stood frozen, gathered everything and collected themselves slowly, then five of them turned to glare at a certain primate of the group.

"Uh . . . I was joking . . . Heh?" Steel Monkey chuckled and shrugged nervously.

"Funny, I wasn't." Fate replied. "Fire!"

With that said, Fate and the other machines fired a barrage of lasers that the six barely managed to dodge in time. They were all forced to scatter as each of the machine soldiers began onslaught that, even with their skills in combat, the six had trouble dodging blasts from weaponry and blocking from physical strikes. Fate remained where he floated and watched in amusement as Dragon and the Furious Five had trouble defending themselves against his soldiers. The worst part, however, lied with the heroes themselves as they constantly bumped into one another, getting their weapons tangled up somehow, and even getting in each other's way. How bad could it be, well . . .

"Hey!"

"Look out!"

"Watch where you're . . !"

"That's my head!"

"Knock it off!"

"Son of a . . !"

Yeah, that's how bad it was. Things could be better, but then again, they could be a lot worse than it was already. Seeing that they were all going nowhere fast, Dragon, hidden in the shadows along with the Five, watched as the machine soldiers swept and combed the area for them. They also heard the sound of falling debris and shrieks of terror from the people at ground level, which really got to the six very badly.

"Hiding yourselves from a superior being, I expected as much, you are doing nothing but proving that I am, in fact, correct that superheroes are nothing but a fraud. You all have every right to hide in fear, but it shall do none of you any good. I have tried to be polite, but I have come to my wit's end. You will come out of the locations of which you are hidden or I shall order my troops to rain fire upon the entire city. If you did not understand an ounce of what I have just said, which is highly predictable, then allow me to translate: surrender yourselves and reveal your identities right now or I shall order my troops to reduce this city to a pile of ashes!"

. . . That did it . . . That was the last straw . . . . This guy could call them cowardly frauds . . . He could say that he was superior to them in every which way, but loose . . . But when he declares that he'd order his machines to harm innocent civilians . . . . There would be hell to pay . . . In full! Because if there was one thing that the six weren't going to allow laying down, letting this mechanical madman having his way of destruction was one of those things. The more Dragon thought about it, the more he came to a conclusion: he and the Five had to set aside their differences and . . . w-w-wor . . . w-w-w-worrrrrrrr . . . . Work together as a team! There, he said it, but that didn't (nor ever) mean that he had to like it.

"Alright, don't know about you guys, but I'm not going to stand for this!" Dragon stated, gaining the attention of the Five. "Okay Look, it's plainly obvious that I don't like any of you and you don't like me."

"Feeling's mutual." Brass Mantis remarked bitterly.

"Even so, this guy isn't going to stop until we do what he wants. Though this goes against everything I've thought about you guys (don't ask), it pains me to say it, and believe me as I stress the word "pains", we have no choice but to . . . but to . . . w-w-w . . . worrrrrr . . . . woooorrrrrrrrrrrrrr . . . . . Work together! There, I said it."

"Uh . . . you're joking, right?" Steel Monkey scoffed skeptically.

"You just said that we don't like each other, so, why bother?" Iron Tigress questioned.

"Even if we do work together, there's just too many of them." Silver Crane stated as his rear fell to the floor.

"Even the other Dragon had it rough with this guy." Bronze Viper said quietly.

"Listen to yourselves, you guys didn't sound like crybabies when you tried to take me last week!" Dragon yelled, which received shocked looks from the Five. "And before any of you says anything, this is not up for debate, because if you haven't noticed: there's a large mechanical maniac threatening to harm innocent civilians just so that he could prove we're fakes!"

"So, what would you have us . . ?" Steel Monkey was about to question.

"I know we don't see eye to eye, trust each other, or even know who the other is (in short I don't know who you guys are under those masks in vice versa), but the point is this: either we work together as a team or everything goes boom!"

"Wow, you actually sound like you care." Bronze Viper said in surprised.

"Of course I care, the main thing in being a superhero is to make sure normal people don't get hurt." Dragon replied seriously, which sounded odd from his usual wise-cracking personality. "Why else jump around the city in flashy costumes and with or without nearly destructive powers in the first place?"

Though it sounded weird the way he described it (and even weirder that the Five were actually starting to agree with him), Dragon was right, despite their many differences, the lives of innocent were hanging in the balance in this situation. Another good point was that they jumped from building to building while wearing such outrageous outfits was to save lives. Yes, it was a matter of fact, they knew nothing about this Dragon and he knew nothing about them, but they took an oath to protect this city and it's inhabitants. They were hesitant, which was highly understandable, they had all came to a conclusion which was brought up by the leader of the group.

"Alright, we'll do this your way, for now." Iron Tigress begrudgingly said.

"So, how do we handle these guys?" Brass Mantis asked.

"Hold on . . . How many killbots are out there?" Dragon asked looking at each of the machine soldiers.

"Thirty-five, thirty-six if you count Fate." Silver Crane said, then realized where Dragon was going. "Six goes into thirty-six by six times; there's thirty-six of them and there're six of us."

"Exactly, ever heard the saying "Divide and Conquer"?"

Down on the street level, along with the commotion and chaos, was a young male Siberian tiger in his mid-twenties. He was about five foot and ten inches tall with the normal colored fur his species had, short auburn-red hair, rounded ears, nearly flat muzzle, and blue eyes. He wore the standard police uniform worn by the ECPD, meaning (if it wasn't so obvious) he was a member of the force. He had only stepped out of his car to run down the street and grab a sandwich from the deli down the street, but was caught off-guard as soon as he saw a unit of flying machine soldiers firing their weapons all over the place, which made him dash through hysteric crowds to get back to where he parked. Upon reaching his patrol car, he turned on the radio and began to hail any other police unit around.

"Mayday, Mayday, this is Officer Benjamin Huan, I'm in the Downtown area and under fire from, well, robots! I repeat, this is Benjy Huan, there is an attack in Downtown! Please, send backup! Other units, SWAT team, military, anyone!"

"Hey, you, Robo-Punks!"

Six of the machine soldiers turned to see the form of Iron Tigress, who of which was glaring daggers at the. None of the soldiers seemed to be phased by her glare as they scanned her every being. They continued to stare and scan until each had confirmed she was one of the targets their creator programmed to annihilate.

Target Acquired. One of the soldiers stated in a techno-like voice as it and five other flew at the red costumed heroine.

Iron Tigress remained where she stood as six of the machines flew at her with amazing speed from their jets, then jumped onto one of the lead soldiers, placed her Amulet around her neck and summoned her claw-like weapons. Upon landing on one of the soldier's back, she pierced both claws into the jets, then gashed the entire back, causing the machine to malfunction and crash to the streets below. As she landed on the rooftop of a nearby building, Iron Tigress found herself confronted by two more machine soldiers as they both advanced on her. After dodging one of the soldiers as it swung at her, she dropped into a Hung Kuen fighting stance, then went on the attack. She came at one of the soldiers and as soon as it tried to punch the tiger with its right fist, she blocked it with her left forearm, the palm struck its head, causing it to fly off the body. The feeling of confidence started to well within her when she was suddenly shot by, what appeared to be, a laser. Slowly and angrily, without a scratch to be seen, the tiger turned around to see three more machine soldiers, one of which had a sort of blaster on its right shoulder, which was most likely the one that shot the feline.

"That's it!" Iron Tigress growled, that would have made the machine soldiers cringe if they had been programmed with emotions. "You walking trash cans just made my list!"

Iron Tigress then made a dash at the three soldiers, jumped in the air, then struck one of the machines with a sidekick, which pierced through its chest and caused it to lose power. Before the remaining soldiers could react, Iron Tigress came at one of them and began to swipe at the machine as if she were a feral tiger, spun into a spinning hook kick, spun again and jumped into a jump spinning hook kick, then jumped up one more time and brought her hands down with her claw weapons. If the soldier were butter, the claws were like knives as the metallic claws slashed through the machine. She then turned to the last of the soldiers, performed a barrage of punch of lightning fast punches at its chest, spun into a jump spinning round kick, then jumped up in the air and brought her claws down upon the machine. Iron Tigress looked around to see that the soldiers were in pieces and were out of commission; perfect.

"That'll teach you." The tiger said in a low voice, then went to catch up with the others.

Things seemed to go the same way for Silver Crane as he flew around another six of the machine soldiers were hot on his trail.

"That's right, you bunch of rust buckets, follow the birdie." The avian whispered.

Silver Crane then dipped and corkscrewed until he was between two of the soldiers, then summon both of his fans. Leaving them into their folded up "dagger-mode", Silver Crane, stabbed both fans into the soldiers, slowed the pace of his flight pattern, and allowed his fans to split the soldiers in two. The avian stopped and watched as the remains of the machine soldiers fall to the ground.

"Your flight's been canceled."

A noise shot out of nowhere as Silver Crane was barely able to dodged a blast from two more machine soldiers flying straight towards him. Seeing no reason to hold back, Silver Crane unfolded his fans and deflected any blasts that came his way, then flew forward. As he approached the incoming machine soldiers and deflected their blasts, Silver Crane caught one of the blasts and redirected it to of the soldiers. This left the avian with the just three, one in front of him and two coming in at 12:00, but first, the one before him needed to go. Before the soldier could react, Silver Crane swiped at it multiple times, which caused it to break into isty bitsy pieces. Upon realizing that the two other machines were almost on top of him, the avian connected both his fans into a disk, then threw it at the soldiers. Bullseye! The fan-disk sailed straight towards the machine soldiers and decapitated both of them; Silver Crane was the victor.

"Thank you, for flying and being sliced n' diced by Air Silver Crane, have a nice day." Silver Crane quipped as if he were an announcer, then flew to meet up with the group.

On the other side of Downtown were Steel Monkey and Brass Mantis stood back to back as they found themselves surrounded by at least a dozen machine soldiers. This deter them, however, as they put on their Amulets and summoned their weapons. They both then dropped into their respective fighting stances and glared at their adversaries.

"Alright, you metal heads want some of this?!" Brass Mantis demanded, twirling his Kamas.

Targets Acquired. The soldiers merely replied as they advanced upon the two.

"You're all going down like Jacques Cousteau!" Steel Monkey stated as he spun his Bo staff.

Brass Mantis then ran between two of the soldiers, who aimed at him, but as they fired, the weasel used his Amulets power to shrink himself, causing both blasts to impact on the soldiers. Another soldier appeared above Brass Mantis and stomped its foot onto him in hopes of squishing him. This intent was unfruitful as Brass Mantis grew in size and mass, the squashed the robot with his own gigantic foot. Steel Monkey was having no problem on his part, what with the super speed he had from his Animal Amulet, and was even able to disarm a great measure of robotic soldiers, then struck them with his staff. Brass Mantis, feeling that these rusty buckets needed to be cut down to size, used his Kamas to slice through most of the soldiers into bits the size of pudding cups. Both heroes continued their onslaught until, though there were still some that were still active in a pile, there were only two left standing. Steel Monkey, using his speed for propulsion, bumped one of the soldiers to Brass Mantis, who was currently a larger size and sliced the machine in two with a now giant Kama. Try as it could as it fired at the now giant green clad weasel, the robo-soldier was helpless as one of the giant hands of the weasel gripped onto it and squeezed it so tight that it was practically crushing.

"Brass Mantis is living large and he's up for the pitch!" Brass Mantis called out and, literally, pitched the machine soldier towards his primate teammate.

"Batter up!" Steel Monkey said, holding his staff like a baseball bat, then swung at the machine soldier that came his way.

The soldier flew in the air until it had crashed into the mound of its broken up comrades, which caused all of them to break into small pieces. Scoreboard, Heroes: 24; Villains: 0.

"Home run!" Steel Monkey announced, then did a little breakdance.

"Alright, Footloose, let's save the celebrating for later, we need to regroup with the others." Brass Mantis said as he and his comrade rush back to mid-Downtown.

Bronze Viper caught the right fist of the robotic soldier with her own right hand, pulled it in as she shopped at its throat, swept it by the leg as it fell to the ground, then (with the help of her Animal Amulet) summoned her chain-whips, wrapped her right hand with one of them, and punched at the soldier's head. That just left her with the five other robots of mass destruction they all took aim at her. This didn't faze her as she activated the powers of her amulet and vanished into thin air.

Target Lost. One of the soldiers said as they looked around for their intended target.

It was then that sparks flew from two of the robots, causing the other three to try to located the source, but found nothing. The sparks stopped coming, but both soldiers bumped into each other as if they were pulled into colliding with each other. At that very moment, one of the soldiers tried to activate its blaster, but was black as the other soldier (appearing to be pushed from behind) collided with its comrade. This caused the robot's blaster to be clogged by the other soldier, then blew up along with the upper halves of the robo-soldiers. It was only a few minuets later that one of the other three robots began to shudder and spasm violently, the suddenly raise its arms and activate it's arm blasters and pointed at the two remaining soldiers. It was then that bronze chains appeared all over the robot's body and with it, atop the soldier itself, Bronze Viper.

Target Acquired. One of the soldiers said, but that hardly mattered at the moment.

As if the snake were a puppeteer and the robotic soldier itself was the puppet, Bronze Viper forced the robot to shoot the two other soldiers into scrap metal. With the last soldier already tangled up in her chain-whips, Bronze Viper jumped off of the robot, then began to pull the chains with all her might. She pulled and pulled until the chains crushed the robotic soldier into pint size pieces, enabling her victory.

"Even good girls have their bad sides." The snake teased, then rushed to catch up with the group.

Dragon, ironically, had the least trouble in fighting his part of the robotic soldiers as he finished two off with his collapsible Bo staff. Placing the extendable staff away, Dragon took out one of his Eskrima sticks and proceeded to attack another soldier, though it was barely scratch the outside of its armor. Obviously, the metal was reenforced, which encouraged Dragon to take out his second Eskrima stick and channel his Chi into both of them as they became ablaze. Hit by hit he struck both of the machines with a barrage of strikes and prairies, then finished off one of them with a stab of both of his sticks. He then turned toward the other soldier, placed his Eskrima sticks on his back, then took out one of his Nunchucks and flailed it around. As the soldier tried to attack him, Dragon used his flail as an Eskrima (with both regular and reverse grip), then flailed it to add more damage as it began to shudder then fall to the ground. He took out the other pair when he saw two more soldiers approach, then lashed out that them as he used both pairs of Nunchucks as Eskrimas. After a few prairies and strikes, Dragon channeled his Chi as both the flails became ablaze, then flailed them in a free-style sort of way. It took only a few minuets as both soldiers now laid in ruins and Dragon stood above the pile victoriously.

"Rest in pieces." Dragon quipped, then mocked bow.

It was at that moment that the Eternal Ember alerted Dragon of incoming danger and managed to jump over another missile that came his way. As soon as he landed on another building he looked around to see if there were any remaining soldiers left, but all were too wrecked up to do anything. It was then that he heard a loud metallic clap and whirled around to see the form of Fate, who hovered above Dragon.

"I must say, I am both disappointed in my soldiers for failing and impressed that you' have managed to defeat them." The mechanical criminal sated in an oddly calm voice. "But your luck ends here!"

Before Dragon could ask what he meant, Fate aimed at a few nearby buildings, then fired a laser, which caused debris to fall upon the citizens on the streets below. Dragon knew, that even with his enchanted speed and leaping abilities, he wouldn't make it in time to help all of them, but that didn't stop him from making a mad dash to one of the streets. As soon as he was in position, Dragon channeled his Chi into his hands, then fired a barrage of Flame-Bullets at the falling debris, but there was still so much that he could do as there was a lot of falling debris. To his horror, Dragon saw that some of the debris was about to fall upon a couple of people and couldn't aim in time . . . When something very odd happened. Right before the debris could make their mark the civilians who were standing there . . . . Vanished. Without leaving a trace of where they went. But, then again, if there were any clues to where they disappeared to, it'd be most likely crushed by the fallen debris. It was at that very moment that the people who were about to be crushed reappeared along with Steel Monkey, who appeared to be their savior and twirled his staff lazily.

"Are you glad I'm such a quickie?" The primate asked jokingly. "If only pizza delivery were this fast."

He wasn't the only one to come to the rescue as Silver Crane swooped a few pedestrians out of harms way from the debris.

"Welcome, to Air Silver Crane, please keep your arms and legs inside the flight at all times." The avian stated as he flew the civilians to safety.

They were soon joined up by the other members of the Five as Brass Mantis appeared in a gigantic form to prevent a few civilians from being crushed by debris.

"Go, quick." The now gigantic weasel ushered, which was obeyed.

The next to help out were Iron Tigress and Bronze Viper as the feline and reptile worked together in their efforts. The tiger punched and kicked any debris that came down into dust as the snake used her chain-whips to pull people out of harms way, both succeeded in rescuing civilians. With everyone out of danger the Five regrouped with Dragon, then glared menacing daggers at a certain madman in armor. Fate, seemingly calm even though he was on the verge of defeat, remained in the air, then started to clap once more.

"It appears that I have gravely underestimated your skills, but no matter." The armored villain stated as his jets began to start-up. "It seems that a tactical retreat is in order, ta ta, for now."

With that said, Fate turned around, then started to fly at high-speed away from the area. What? That was it? The guy talked smack about superheroes, he unleashed a unit of robotic soldier, he fired on innocent civilians, and now he was running (or flying or whatever) away?! What, was he all talk or just plain afraid to take them on himself? It was kindly safe to say: this guy had some nerve! The heroes were about to give chase, when something much more odd than the week before, happened. Everything, including Fate himself . . . Began to slow down in, literally, slow-motion. Now this was serious deja-vu on Dragon's, but it didn't feel like Annie was any part of it, in fact, everything began to turn . . . Blue? Apparently, Dragon was the only one to experience what was going on as he heard sounds of surprise from the Furious five and saw that the Five Animal Amulets were glowing.

"What the hell?!" Steel Monkey yelped.

"What's happening?" Silver Crane asked in bewilderment.

"I don't know!" Iron Tigress replied, not trying to hide the look of surprise on her face.

Dragon was about say something, but was met by flashes of images inside his head, then turned to face the five.

"I think I know what to do!" He said, gaining the attention of the five of heroes. "Look, I can't explain why, but try to channel your Chi into the Amulets, then shoot them at me."

"How's that going to . . ?" Iron Tigress was about to question.

"Just do it!"

"Well, okay, I was open for suggestion any way." Brass Mantis said as he channeled his Chi into his Amulet, then chuckled. "Heh, that rhymed."

The rest of the Five looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders, then began to channel their Chi into their respective Amulets as Dragon instructed. Dragon himself focused his Chi throughout his body and began to glow a bright gold color as he waited for the right moment to strike. As soon as their Chi was at full power, each of the Five focused on giving some to Dragon as orbs of multicolored energy (red from Tiger, white from Crane, brown from Monkey, and green from both Snake and Mantis) flew out of their Amulets. The orbs of energy flew towards Dragon at high-speed, but as soon as they reached him, they stopped, then started to fly in circular motions like planets around the sun. Dragon then started to perform a Tai Chi form, then placed both arms to his right (think the Kamehameha Wave from the Dragon Ball Series or Hadouken from the Street Fighter Series) as an orb of golden energy began to energize. As he charged it up, the five other orbs increased their speed, then flew into the gold energy orb, which made it glow even brighter. Feeling that the energy was charged up and ready for deployment, Dragon thrust out both of his arms as he shot the orb straight towards Fate. While in the air, the orb, much to the shock and awe of the six heroes, began to grow until it became a thirty foot long Chinese dragon. The Dragon missed its mark, but before the six could groan in defeat, the dragon flew around in a sphere-like way until it stopped, then let out a loud roar. It then saw Fate, then flew as fast as a bullet as everything began to quicken up back to its normal speed. At that very moment, there was a huge explosion, then everything went silent . . . Until the hulking form of Fate crashed to the ground. The six slowly approached, then as soon as they though that it work; they won! They began to sigh in relief, then were met by a sudden sound of something none of them would never think they would hear. The six heroes looked around to see that the people around them were cheering for them. The six heroes looked around, then began to wave to everyone when a sudden thought popped into Dragon's head.

"Uh . . . Guys . . . I just remembered something . . ." He murmured slowly. "Even if their the biggest A-holes in the whole universe . . . It's way uncool to BBQ a person!"

"Awe, crap, he's . . . right?" Silver Crane uttered, when he saw that Fate's chest was open and . . . there was no one inside.

"What the . . ?" Brass Mantis questioned in confusion.

"Does this mean he was a machine all this time?" Bronze Viper asked with a tilted head.

"No, it just means the "Fate" you faced was a toy, so to speak."

The six whirled around to see a huge, static-flashing, holographic image of Fate that was coming from the "ruined" Fate's eyes.

"What the hell . . ?" Steel Monkey tried to process, but couldn't find the right words

"I have no time to explain, but I shall say this: you may have bested my works of art this day, but do not allow this victory to go to your already swollen head. This will not by the first time we will encounter each other nor shall it be the last you all shall see of me. The others and I have plans for this city and we shall not allow the likes of you to interfere."

"What do you mean by that?" Dragon demanded menacingly.

"Oh, you'll see soon enough, you all will." The holographic Fate chuckled. "But the next time we meet, I will not be as generous as I was this day, end transmission."

On that command the hologram flashed, then dissipated as the fake Fate then shut down . . . permanently.

"Yeah, that's right you better run away!" Steel Monkey shouted. "Or wither or dissipate or whatever!"

"Speaking of running away . . ." Dragon remarked as police sirens filled the air. "Look, it's been fun and all doing all fighting robots, but I really gotta book."

"Wait!" Silver Crane called, which got the other hero's attention. "About what happened, well, how do I put this . . ?"

"Thank you, for helping us!" Brass Mantis stated.

"Yeah, thanks, I guess." Steel Monkey muttered bitterly

"Couldn't have stopped them if it weren't for us working together." Bronze Viper Smiled.

"Maybe we could . . . do this . . . again . . . anytime soon?" Iron Tigress asked in a strained voice and awaited for an answer.

". . . Just don't go making a habit out of it . . . then maybe, just maybe . . . yeah, we can." Dragon replied as he leapt away.

While he jumped from building to building, Dragon's thoughts went back to what Fate had just said. What did he mean by the "others" and who were they suppose to be anyway? Was he working with or for someone or a group? Well, Whoever they are or might be, there was no way they'd be taking Empire City while he stood and breathed. If they wanted to do what they wanted with this city, they'd have to get through him first! He then focused back on returning to base, then take a break to get some eats with Jeff. As he continued, he turned to see none other than the new Furious Five, standing there while in deep conversation about a sort of topic. Though he knew better than to eavesdrop on the people that helped him against a very powerful supervillain, the temptation was just too great to ignore and Dragon found himself at a safe distance where he could hear them without being spotted. As he looked to where they were and kept quiet to hear what they were saying. Apparently, they were conversing on the encounter ealier when they were fighting against Fate and his machine soldiers.

"Think we'll ever find out who he is under his mask?" Silver Crane asked in curiosity, most likely they were asking about him (Dragon).

"Who knows, only time will tell." Bronze Viper replied, stretching out a bit. "Though it might be a while, we still know very little about him."

"And the same thing could be said about us." Iron Tigress added as she, to Dragon's surprised, took off her mask. "But hopefully, we'll learn to work on trusting each other if we're to work together."

As soon as the conversation was over Iron Tigress turned around, which allowed Po to see who she was under the mask and went wide-eye. . . . It. . . It was not possible. . . . It had to be a dream. . . . No. . . It was a nightmare! It was her! How could she be the current successor to the Iron Tiger Amulet?!

End of Changes

To Be Continued: Prologue: Begging of a Generation

That was chap 14 by me, the 2211 King! AnthroLover and Benjamin King your characters have met by cameoed! Never thought it would come to this, Po finding out who the Furious Five without their masks on. Think the tension has risen a bit? And it's official, Fate isn't working alone, he has inside help; talk about conspiracy, huh? On a side note, I have some very sad news to break to the readers. It was fun working and planning this story, but I'm sad to say that the next chap will be the final. That doesn't mean I'm done just yet. Not by a longshot! Stay tuned and stay cool. This is King of 2211, signing off.

P.S.

To any Miles Morales Spidey fans who have followed up on recent issues . . . SPIDEY IS BACK IN BLACK! But no, seriously, Miles is finally back in the game in the Ultimate Universe. Also, as confirmed by Brian Michael Bendis, there is, in fact a 616 Miles Morales. So again, I mean no offense to any Superior Spider-Man fans on the net, but . . . SUCK IT DAN SLOTT!

Here's Fate's bio:

Name: Milo Masters/Fate

Real Name: Gabriel Masters

Species: Crocodile

Age: Biologically 34, but chronologically 130

Date of Birth: March 22, 1804 (as Gabriel), 1974 (as Milo)

Residence: Presidential suite in the best hotel of Empire City

Gender: Male

Description:

8 feet tall with emerald colored scales, black hair in a mohawk, and yellow eyes with slit pupils.

Personality:

Moderate, hateful, patient, wise, determined, and hard-working.

Friends and Family:

Unnamed parents (deceased)

Carla Simpson (vixen, secretary)

Hobbies:

Playing cricket, playing chess, swimming, and spending time creating new devices.

Likes:

Receiving recognizement, winning, being successful in his plans, if they work that is.

Dislikes:

People who think that he doesn't deserve and losing.

Biography:

Gabriel Masters was born to a poor family as his mother never had time for him and his father left before he was born, but he never let that stop him. When he was eight he worked two jobs and yet he was still the best in his class. At age eighteen he was accepted in the best universities in the country and some from Europe. He quickly and expertly became knowledgeable in chemistry, biology, medicine and mechanics. His knowledge became more and more advanced until he became one of the richest people in the state. When the Great Depression happened, his company went broke, but he didn't let that win him over. He worked three jobs to rebuild his fortune and as time went by, he became richer than before; becoming one of the richest men in North America. One thing bothered him very much: the so-called superheroes. Many of them received their "gifts" accident, luck, or just being plain naturally talented. They never had to work as hard as him to get things in life and yet, they could (literally overnight) create more fame and prestige than it took him his whole life to create. This made his blood and swore he would prove to everyone that these so-called "heroes" were nothing but fakers. So created a mechanical suit of armor and called himself Fate, the one who would show the world that heroes were nothing. Time passed and age had started to take its effect on him, which meant he needed more time to carry out his plans. So, he did something many would think impossible and that, he himself, considered would be his greatest conquering: he cloned himself and transferred his memories to the new body. He had, in a way, achieved immortality. As years went by and changing the world along the way, he would learn more and became even richer and more powerful, but his goal to defeat and take the prestige from of the heroes remained. This would put him in direct confrontation with many heroes of Empire City. Once he even almost forced Dragon (who was Robert at the time) to reveal his identity by threatening to blow up a building that was full of innocent people, fortunately, he failed. His mechanical armor improved over time, now collecting in more modern combat technology. Nowadays he's known to the public world as Milo Masters, the great-grandson of himself and one of the richest people in the world, beside the Wellingtons.

Costume Description:

His armor nowadays is crimson in color, 15 feet tall with strong metallic arms, and has an F over the chest.

Powers and Abilities:

He has none, but compensates with his incredible intelligence and the wisdom he accumulated in more than one century oh his life.

Weapons and Equipment:

His armor has laser weapons, plasma canons, flying rockets, explosives, highly advanced sensors and many other things. He also holds portable weapons that he uses and many robots with the same weapons.

Skills:

He is incredibly skilled in many areas: mechanics, biology, chemistry, automation, administration, and knows a lot of many other things that he's learned in his life.

Affiliation: Evil