Chameleon is a great character and the ladies division was way too small. T_T It also took me way too long to update, period, but especially to feature any of the women. Speaking of: yes, I know a certain badass lady has not been mentioned at all yet. Trust me, I have not forgotten about Baby Doll.

Also, IMO it's super not cool that of the 8 WMAC action figures Bandai released, they were all dudes. I wonder if we'd have seen an Olympus launcher had the show gotten a 3rd season...? Absolutely no hate, I'd 100% have bought one and gone after my cousins with it.

Anyhoo. It's been too long since I updated this. I could lie and say I've been focusing on original stuff (eh, I have but not nearly enough). I'm just lazy and got in my head on where to take this. I hope whoever's been clicking on this has gotten some enjoyment from it and you aren't just sharing it around going, "Remember WMAC Masters? Check out this absolute dog turd of a fanfic I found." Unless that IS how you're enjoying it… In that case, carry on. I aim to please. :D

Chameleon's not particularly happy they lost. Who would be? Tracer said they had the makings of a great team when she asked what he and Warlock were talking about before their mixed doubles match. But it didn't feel like he was telling the whole truth.

Turned out he was wrong, too.

She supposes that's what they get for celebrating too soon. For enjoying it a bit too much when they had Lady Lightning and Superstar on the ropes. In the garbage. That's when people are at their most dangerous, after all: when they're backed into a corner. Wounded animals and all that.

Sophia knows this. Tracer does too.

He's surprisingly even-keeled back in the Inner Sanctum, considering the way he stormed out of the belt ceremony. He barely reacts to Yin Yang Man's taunt. "Hey, too bad you lost, Tracy."

Puts Sophia on edge the way Tracer insists it's no big deal, really. It's a 180, his personality, here. The wheels are turning inside his head, but it's more like the tread on a tank and she can't help wondering what he's picturing underneath it all when he says, "Sometimes you have to lose in order to win. Just like chess. You sacrifice a few pieces and before you know it… Checkmate."

Sophia knows wisdom is one of the points of the Dragon Star but this feels like downright plotting.

She's still disappointed about the loss, but now she's unnerved, too. She tries to match Tracer's tone, his overall demeanor as she replies, "Well, that's putting a positive spin on things."

"Well, don't worry. We'll have our day."

Sophia isn't feeling particularly social. Or maybe it's just that big to-dos have just never been her style. Or maybe it's that while she knows Jukido is gone now, they won't stay gone. Plus, she knows a distraction when she sees one, because this is nothing like Black Widow's going-away party. Then again, that may have been bittersweet, but it felt like there was at least some cause for celebration. Black Widow was leaving the WMAC, but on good terms, and she sure didn't take the Dragon Star with her.

Competition's over for the week and the only reason Sophia even bothered to stick around is because, even though it wasn't necessarily mandatory, it might as well have been. Obligation. That's the ticket. Sophia feels she owes it to the rest of the masters to make an appearance. Red Dragon's invitation was directed at the entire roster, after all. Minus those who've absconded with the Dragon Star and have yet to be apprehended for the crime, of course. Everyone else is here because they're friends. They're friendly, at least.

Well, she said it herself: sometimes it doesn't pay to have friends.

There's other sayings about friends. Enemies, too, and who a person ought to keep closer to them. She likes that all even less than her own poor soundbytes. Mostly because it feels like Jukido is closer to her than her fellow masters. They wanted to be, at least.

Maybe it's that this isn't the first time she's been at the WMAC after-hours. Wasn't anything untoward, like what Warlock did to Wizard. But Sophia didn't exactly have permission, either, and she's relatively certain nobody knows she was there.

Competition was temporarily suspended while the council investigated the attack on Wizard. Masters were doing all sorts of things to cope. To try and help. Machine and Tracer broke bricks. Upped the stakes and lit their stacks on fire, no less. For a fleeting moment, it almost seemed like Tracer was one of them. Not well-liked, by any means, but one of them.

Yin Yang and Great Wolf visited Wizard in the hospital and were the only ones to do so before the council stepped in with the decree that nobody hassle him about the attack until they were through looking into things. It's weird, looking back, that they seemed not to want him talking about what happened.

Suppose it didn't matter in the end; he didn't want to talk, either, for a long spell. The council's so-called investigation never turned up anything useful, either. Competition resumed anyway.

It doesn't sit well with Sophia the way history is repeating itself.

Stars are beginning to twinkle, as the last of the orange changes to lavender, then indigo, then black. Or maybe the light's just been replaced. But it doesn't matter how bright the moon shines, or how many more stars appear against the night sky. It's still another day gone without the Dragon Star.

Sophia looks to the fire where everyone else is gathered and remembers that last time. How Great Wolf prayed and how she was equal parts enamored and ashamed for witnessing it. For how she did nothing but trail another person without his permission or awareness, only to lurk in the shadows—the cold—and gawk.

"It's warmer by the fire." Red Dragon's flanked Sophia, and with a surprising lack of a come-on, no less. She's just annoyed she didn't notice him coming. Didn't realize he wasn't gathered with everyone else. That he was creeping up on her.

She crosses her arms. "It's Florida. It's warm everywhere."

Muggy and sticky and dewy, the heat. Lingering. The only time anything cools is when there's a bit of breeze, and it serves as a very good reminder of what's what, when a person stays in one place for too long.

Sophia knows better than to believe this will all work out like in the movies. Jukido is a real world criminal organization involved in heavy, ugly, highly illegal stuff, the least of which is theft of a trophy. Stealing the Dragon Star was their coming out party. Sure, they hightailed it afterward, but that was at least as strategic as making off with it in the first place if she knows anything about Tracer and she knows more than she'd like. They have every intention of stepping back into the WMAC.

As its new proprietors.

That's exactly why she just can't get on board with this 'business as usual' mentality everyone else is all about. Or maybe it's that she can't bring herself to trust in it. It's an ugly mask as far as she's concerned. Doesn't fit well and it's hard to breathe through.

"If you really don't wanna be here with us, there's other places you could be." Red Dragon sounds pretty certain, but he's trying for nonchalance, too, and it's like oil and water. Too slippery, too deep. It doesn't mix. They don't.

"Like where?" Sophia asks. She's a touch offended, but curious more than anything.

"That's for you to decide. Everyone who's here wants to be. At least, that's what I thought."

He's not asking her to leave, of course not. It's personable, affable, champion of champions, Red Dragon. He's telling her he won't try to stop her from walking away. Telling her he won't do anything is what. That's what worries her. That she's surrounded by a bunch who've locked themselves in jail because they think the bars will protect them. And it's not free will Red Dragon's selling; he's basically just told Sophia, 'Don't let the door hit you on the way out.'

The realization hurts more than she expected. "Guess I'm just not in the mood to 'eat, drink, and be merry,'" she mumbles.

"What are you in the mood for?" Red Dragon asks. His eyes wander, look her up and down. It's pure study, though, nothing lascivious about it. It's worse in a way, to be on the receiving end of on-the-level scrutiny. No, it's more like pity. He guesses, "Stormin' some warehouse by the docks?"

Sophia's irked by the suggestion, but can't help conceding, "Okay, I see your point."

"Or some underground lair or something."

"I said I see your point. And it's not a bad one."

"Or maybe Tracer and Warlock are in a spaceship!"

The annoyance is fading into something Sophia refuses to call amusement. "Okay, now you're just being ridiculous."

"You know… I could almost go for a spaceship battle."

"I already said you made your point."

"Uh huh."

"And that you were being ridiculous."

Red Dragon suddenly looks extremely serious, and it's the first time Sophia's seen that look on his face outside of a match. He's usually jolly, jovial, lighthearted—bit of a ham, to be honest. It's easy to forget the determination that put him on the throne, when he's not sat directly on it. "You don't need to prove you're one of us."

There's something tugging at the corner of Sophia's mouth. Bitter and sweet, trying to pull away from each other because they don't belong together is what. "Sort of feels like I need to prove I'm not one of them."

"Are you kidding me?" Red Dragon is incredulous. He makes a point to blink a couple of times. "I mean, look at Turbo."

He gestures to the small crowd across the way; everyone else really has gathered around. She can't help notice how everyone's sitting together, playfully nudging and elbowing at one another, for space. Egging Turbo and Star Warrior on if she's seeing it right, mouths full and mumbling nonsense—the faintest echoes of 'chubby bunny' if she's hearing it right.

Good grief.

"I mean, the guy blows his stack on a weekly basis and nobody thinks he's Jukido." Red Dragon's words cut into the scene, but only just so. "I don't, at least."

"How's that?"

"For the same reason I know you aren't, and I'm not, and Hakim isn't, and so on and so on. Because we've all had our hands on the Dragon Star."

Sophia points out, "Except, I haven't. Not really."

"Exactly. But you won it. Which means they stole it from you, too."

"Easy to say when they never tried to recruit you." It's why, for all of her confidence, for every well-earned victory, she can't quite shake the worry that that's still what everyone sees when they look her way. The cyber cell's empty now, but before that... What was in it was ugly and wrong and didn't belong.

"This wouldn't happen to have anything to do with you pairing up with Tracer for the mixed doubles match?" Red Dragon asks.

"Maybe." Only everything. "I didn't quite realize I was auditioning for Jukido at the time."

Sophia had no idea what Tracer was really about back then, or that she was being swindled. That he and Warlock were only looking for someone else to exploit, to turn against the WMAC. That they took one look at Chameleon—or who knows how many—and decided she was their type.

Changed their tune, of course, when it became clear they weren't all there for the same reasons. Sophia was there to win matches, to fill her Dragon Belt, and they were just around to cause mayhem. Tear everyone apart. Of course, nobody found that out until it was too late.

"Well, for the record," Red Dragon begins, "every guy here would've jumped at the chance to be your partner. In fact, you didn't hear it from me, but I might know somebody who'd have hopped off the throne to pair up with you for that match."

"Tell me a worse kept secret."

"Is there one?"

"Us?"

"Excuse me?" Red Dragon looks genuinely surprised.

"We aren't exactly laying low here," Sophia explains. "Doors open, competition back on."

"Oh… gotcha. Parties when mom and dad are out of town." Red Dragon jokes. Then he sighs. "You know, you're not the first to lecture me on how futility isn't one of the points of the Dragon Star. I know this might seem like nothing more than trying to put a band-aid over the top of an active volcano. Mid-eruption."

"Chris?" It's weird and almost desperate, Sophia's voice. Sort of like listening to a recording of oneself and wincing for how it sounds, wondering if that's really what everyone else hears. She should've called him Red Dragon. It's just now dawning on her it's the first time she didn't. The only time, before tonight, that Sophia called any of the other masters by name, it was Tracy, and that was to mock him.

"I know what I'm doing. Or not doing. I know Warlock and Tracer need to pay for what they did, and that we need to figure out where Tsunami got off to and why."

There's something that doesn't sit well with Sophia. It wouldn't, anyway, but it makes her more than a little uneasy to know she was the last person to talk to Tsunami, among the ranks of the WMAC, at least. It's the first time that Sophia's aware that a master has just disappeared without notice.

Chris continues, "But I also know that if we aren't careful—if we don't do it the right way—things could get even worse."

"If we don't find Jukido and stop them… They'll come for us."

"I know. I'll be right here." Chris's eyes are dark, but so very clear. His words are, too, when he finally, very sternly, says, "I told you, I know what I'm doing. I'll be here, and since competition is up and running again, so will everybody you see right now."

A/N: I think Chameleon refers to Yin Yang Man by first name in Battle of the Brothers, so I might be a liar when she says she hasn't called anyone besides Tracy by name. But that's nowhere near the only thing wrong with this, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I also said I was gonna acknowledge Tsunami's absence from the POV of the good guys in more than a "well, dang, that's weird" sort of manner when I updated and here we are and I didn't. Welp.

I've always wondered where things would've gone officially and was recently made aware (via an awesome YT retrospective; I wish this site didn't just eat links) that the reason the series was canceled wasn't lack of popularity. Rather, there was disagreement on whether or not to continue with stuff like the larger good versus evil arc of the WMAC against Jukido or return to one-off moral of the week episodes.

The former is more exciting but the latter is definitely more sustainable, imo. Plus, if the good guys never completely defeated Jukido (or were continually made to face similar enemies/threats) it would make them look incompetent and that's not a great message for a kids show. IE: the best martial artists in the world can't keep their own house in order. I can see why that created a problem.

Anyhoo, my discord handle's in my profile if anyone wants to chat WMAC or any other nerd/fandom nonsense.