CHAPTER 13

The next day, the 6 rebels met at Coyote Creek that afternoon, ready for the final test of Johnny's training. They were going to do a similar drill to what they did in Cobra Kai the previous year.

"Gentlemen. Ladies. Larusso. Welcome to Coyote Creek." Johnny announced, glaring down at his students. Daniel rolled his eyes at the subtle dig. "What's going to happen is that Larusso and I are going to draft you into two teams: Red and Blue. The goal, as Mr. Diaz and Ms. Robinson already know, is to capture as many headbands as possible from the other side. Today, the people around you are not your friends. They are not your brothers. They are the enemy. Because we have way less people as last time, you each get three headbands: three lives. After one of your lives is taken, your captor has to give you thirty seconds to regroup before he or she can come after you again."

"How do we capture the headbands?" Sam asked.

"By any means possible." Johnny replied. Daniel sighed.

"Use your judgement. This is just a training exercise." He explained.

"Correct." Johnny muttered. "But these headbands, they are your life. You lose them, you die. Oh, and fair warning: Larusso and I have a lot of money riding on this so both of us really want to win. Now, let's draft teams."

"Because Johnny has done this drill before, I get first pick." Daniel stated. "And with the first pick of the draft, I choose… Miguel."

"What?!" Johnny yelped, quietly. This was not going to plan! Johnny had assumed Miguel and Aisha would be on his team, and Sam and Demitri would be on Daniel's. Daniel smirked. He had chosen Miguel for that very reason.

"What's the matter, Johnny? Did I throw a wrench in your plans?" Daniel asked, gleefully. Johnny shook his head.

"No, um… I, uh, just assumed that you'd pick your daughter or Ms. Robinson or Mouth because you have such a strong connection with them." Johnny stammered.

"Guess you thought wrong." Daniel grinned.

"Yeah, and could you please stop calling me Mouth?" Demitri asked, frustratedly. "My name is Demitri!"

"Yeah, whatever Mouth." Johnny grumbled. Demitri sighed and rolled his eyes. "Anyway, with my first pick, I am taking Ms. Robinson."

Aisha smiled and joined Sensei Lawrence's team.

"Okay, I'll take Sam, which leaves you with…"

"Mouth." Johnny grunted through gritted teeth. "Great."

"Okay, so the teams are Sam, Miguel and I against Johnny, Aisha and Demitri." Daniel announced. "Johnny and I will stay here, and we'll have walkie talkies to communicate with you guys. It is a large forest so we need the walkie talkies to be able to talk. Does everyone understand?"

"Yes!" They all replied. The four students then all took off towards the woods. Although Sam and Miguel were technically teammates and Aisha and Demitri were also teammates, because of the limited numbers, they couldn't really double team on each other so their team was really more of an alliance. Both Sam and Miguel had Daniel in their ear, and Aisha and Demitri had Johnny communicating with them. Let the battle begin. Le jeu commence…

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Little did they know that on the other side of the forest, two black jeeps pulled up and parked. Stepping out the car was none other than John Kreese and 6 of his most fearsome Cobra Kai recruits: Hawk, Tory, Mitch, Kye, Brucks and Yasmine.

"Are you sure they're here?" Kreese asked Tory. Tory nodded.

"One hundred percent. I tracked Miguel's phone here. Idiot forgot to take me off of his Find my Friends on his phone. And if Miguel's here…"

"The others won't be far behind." Kreese finished, nodding his head. "Okay, the 4 kids are presumably spread out all around this forest. Mitch, Brucks, Yasmine, Kye, the four of you hunt Aisha and Demitri. Hawk and Tory, you two hunt the other two. And remember…"

"Wound not kill. We know." Hawk snarled.

"Yeah. We still want that fight with them in June and it won't happen if you fucking kill them." Kreese snapped.

"Wait, what about Johnny and Daniel?" Tory asked. "If the kids are here, so are they."

"Don't worry about them. I've got this." Kreese replied. "Now hunt, Cobras, hunt!"

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At that point in the rebels' game, Sam and Miguel had 2 lives left each and Aisha and Demitri had one each. Daniel was getting increasingly confident and Johnny was getting increasingly annoyed.

"I'm going to win this!" Daniel exclaimed. Johnny glared at him.

"Only because you took my star pupil." Johnny snapped back. Daniel sighed.

"Look, Johnny, when are you going to start thinking about these kids as our pupils, not as ex-Miyagi-Dos, and Ex-Cobras? You, me, Miguel, Sam, Aisha and Demitri, we all play for the same team now, you know? We all have one common enemy!"

Suddenly, Johnny's phone rang. He took it out of his pocket and looked at it. He raised an eyebrow.

"Speak of the devil. It's Kreese." He murmured.

"Well… answer it!" Daniel said. Johnny nodded and answered the phone.

"Hello?" Johnny grumbled.

"Greetings." Kreese's calculated voice echoed through the phone as both Johnny and Daniel squeezed into the frame of the video call.

"I don't suppose you're calling to call off the fight because you're too pussy to face us." Johnny snapped. Kreese chuckled.

"Ever the hothead, aren't you Mr. Lawrence?" He responded. "And no. I am not calling to back Cobra Kai out."

"We never asked for this, you know?" Johnny stated. "We never asked to be in this war. We just wanted to save these kids. And keep them alive."

"Please, forfeit the fight and we can end the misery that is karate in the valley. You will never have to see us ever again." Daniel pleaded. Kreese chuckled.

"Mr. Larusso. You couldn't have run from this anymore than you could have run from karate." Kreese stated.

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Meanwhile, in the forest, Aisha and Demitri were tiptoeing around. The forest was suddenly eerily quiet. No birds singing. Both of their hair stood up on its end. Then, out of nowhere, 4 people lunged at the two of them. They could barely react before 4 Cobras started kicking the crap out of them while they were on the ground. They were unable to do anything. Unable to defend themselves, let alone attack back. Demitri looked into the faces of Kye and Brucks and see his old tormentors, and Aisha looked at Yasmine, her old bully. Once Aisha and Demitri were both down and only semi-conscious, Kye texted a message to Kreese.

Demitri & Aisha down. Looking for other 2 now with Hawk & Tory.

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Kreese saw the message immediately and he smirked, still on the phone with Johnny and Daniel.

"Please. You've won." Daniel said. "You've already beaten me. Beaten us. Don't blame the children for the mistakes of our past. Take me instead."

Kreese scoffed.

"We're long past the opportunity for noble sacrifice." Kreese stated.

"Then tell us what to do." Johnny stated. "I've always kept my promises, haven't I?"

"You say you didn't want a war, Mr. Lawrence? And that's just what's happened. I told you what a fragile thing peace was. And still, like a child, you took pleasure in breaking it." Kreese stated. Johnny turned to Daniel. Something seemed off. Kreese was smirking at them as if he knew something they didn't. As if he had already won.

"Larusso, something doesn't feel right." Johnny whispered. Daniel nodded, echoing his thoughts.

"I know. What do we do?"

"I don't know. Let's keep listening I guess." Johnny replied.

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Miguel was alone in the forest. Him and Sam had split their alliance given that they both had multiple lives left, and he too had an eerie feeling about his situation. Coyote Creek used to be a lush area, filled with the tweets and cheers from birds, however it was utterly silent now, as if some black cloud had hovered over it. Then, Miguel heard it… a cry of pain. It was extremely far away, but still audible. He could tell from the emotion in the voice that it was undeniably Demitri, and it was clearly not inflicted by one of them as neither him nor Sam would inflict that much pain on Demitri. He sprinted towards the direction of the sound, silently plodding through the leaves. Eventually, he came to a clearing that was also dead silent, however the snap of a leave up ahead caused him to charge through the trees and tackle a standing figure. Miguel instinctively brought down a leg to pin the person beneath him, and he got a look at who it was. He immediately relaxed. It was just Sam.

"Jeez, Sam. You scared the crap out of me!" He exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought I heard something." Sam replied. "Someone shouting."

Miguel nodded.

"I heard it too." He replied. "Well, if that wasn't you, either Demitri and Aisha betrayed each other, or…"

"Something else is in this forest." Sam murmured. Miguel nodded and was instantly guarded.

"Stick together, okay?" He stated. Sam nodded and the two of them slowly tiptoed through the forest again…

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"I know what you are, Mr. Lawrence." Kreese continued. "I know you can't see past your narrow concerns. But please, I doubt you know what honesty is anymore. I want you to remember that. Do you really think I don't know that you and your students are scattered around Coyote Creek right now, single pawns for my Cobras and I to overrun?"

With that, Kreese ended the call and Johnny and Daniel's hearts dropped. Kreese knew they were there, which meant all of the Cobras were in the forest, hunting for their four students.

"Miguel, come in!" Daniel shouted desperately into his walkie talkie. "Sam, come in!"

No answer from either.

"Miguel!" Daniel yelled again, ever louder.

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"Miguel!"

Miguel's walkie talkie blasted out Daniel's anxiety as it lay on the ground. Miguel and Sam knew they had far bigger problems than whatever Daniel had to say. Standing three feet away from them were their arch nemeses: Hawk and Tory.

"Hey guys." Miguel said, trying to keep the mood cheerful. "Any way we can go home and forget all about this? I don't want to fight you guys."

"I'm going to kill you, you backstabbing little pussy." Hawk growled at him. Miguel sighed.

"Apparently not." He remarked in reply. He then got into a fighting stance. "Okay, let's do this…"

Then, Tory and Hawk lunged, but to their surprise, Sam and Miguel were more than ready. Johnny's agility training gave them the ability to use climbing trees to their advantage. His speed training enabled them to outmaneuver the Cobras at every turn. His strength training helped them land heavy blows on their enemies. Although Miguel hadn't yet learnt the craft of the Miyagi-Do defense, his attack more than made up for it. He was dominating Hawk in their fight, and Sam was dominating Tory in hers. Soon, Sam had actually managed to render Tory semi-conscious with a vicious uppercut to the jaw, so she turned to watch Miguel and Hawk's battle. They had both climbed to the top of the cliff leading down to a ravine, and they fought at the very edge, Miguel's back to the edge so he couldn't see the massive drop behind him. Sam suddenly had an extremely woozy deja vue moment as she saw Miguel near the very edge. Then, a vicious side kick from Hawk sent him tumbling over the edge…

"MIGUEL!" She screamed. For a brief moment, silence. Little did she realise that hanging onto the underside of the cliff like spiderman was Miguel. He slowly but surely climbed back up and sent a fearsome blow to the back of an unexpecting Hawk's head, causing him to fall to the ground.

"Fool me once…" Miguel spat as he stood over Hawk's body. Sam let out a massive sigh of relief as Miguel walked over to her. Their smiles though quickly fell as Hawk and Tory slowly stumbled to their feet. Miguel and Sam's eyes widened.

"Jesus Christ, these guys are durable!" Miguel exclaimed in horror as Tory and Hawk regained their bearings in a zombie-like fashion.

"What do we do?" Sam stammered.

"RUNN!"