CHAPTER 29

"Woah, woah, woah! Are you crazy?!" Johnny shouted at Miguel as they were led out of the Captain's office and into the LAPD armory for Miguel to take any weapons he needed for the mission. He had no idea why the LAPD were being so trusting of him, but Johnny being a veteran and them just bringing in the second-in-command of the cartel definitely helped. "You're just gonna blow up the leader of the cartel?"

"Yup." Miguel replied as he walked through the armory and threw a bunch of guns and grenades in his bag. "Since you tossed my last grenade, I got to stock up."

"So you're going down to Mexico and you're gonna start a war?" Johnny snapped.

"No, I'm gonna finish one." Miguel replied. Johnny sighed and put his head in his hands in frustration and fear.

"Okay, let's say you go down there and you're successful in this little suicide mission. You take the cartel leader out. Someone else is just gonna step up and take his place." Johnny stated. Miguel shrugged.

"Then I'll take him out." Miguel replied.

"You can't because you just went on a suicide mission, or do you not understand the meaning of those words?" Johnny exclaimed. "Look, Miguel, the only way to do this is to take out the entire cartel."

"Oh, what a great idea! Why didn't I think of that?" Miguel remarked, sarcastically.

"I'm serious." Johnny said. "We're gonna need a lot more than grenades."

Miguel turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry. We?" Miguel asked. Johnny scowled at him.

"Yeah, we. You better believe I'm coming with you." Johnny growled. Miguel turned to face him and to Johnny's extreme shock and surprise, Miguel had tears in his eyes.

"You're staying here." Miguel stated, firmly.

"Miguel, I…" Johnny started but Miguel interrupted him.

"Please." Miguel begged. "You and I both know that I'm not coming home from this mission. If you're not staying for me, then do it for Robby. You have another son, Johnny. You abandoned him once. Don't do it again."

Johnny also had tears in his eyes at this point. He embraced his student tightly.

"Be safe." Johnny said, weakly. Miguel chuckled and nodded.

"I'm an unhinged 18 year old, holding handfuls of grenades, and trying to blow up the biggest cartel in the world. What could go wrong?"

With that, Miguel heaved the bag over his shoulder and walked out into the night. Later that night, Johnny parked outside the Larusso house. He was about to tell the Larussos about everything that was going on. He knocked on the door and Daniel opened the door. Johnny took a deep breath and stepped inside…

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"Wait, so you got Kreese?" Daniel asked, surprised. Johnny had just explained the whole series of events that had occurred in Mexico to Daniel, Amanda, Sam, Aisha and Demitri, and they were very confused.

"Yeah, he's in LAPD custody now." He said. "He'll stand trial and be sentenced to a massive sentence for what he did. He's being charged with the murder of Miguel's family, attempted murder when he strapped the mom to Sam's car, and large-scale drug trafficking from his affiliation with the cartel. He's going to get what he deserves."

"That's great." Daniel said, relieved. "So it's over?"

"Not quite. Soon." Johnny murmured. He took a deep breath. "Look, when we agreed to team up, it was for one reason: for keeping us safe. All of us, and that includes Miguel Diaz, who's out in the streets right now I don't know where."

"Yeah, what the hell's he doing? I thought he was coming back to the team after the Kreese shit blows over?" Daniel said. Tears welled up in Johnny's eyes and everyone was taken aback by the sudden emotion in their normally emotionless sensei.

"Johnny… where's Miguel?" Amanda asked, terrified after seeing the look on Johnny's face.

"For as long as the cartel is active, none of you are safe. The cartel are going to want retribution for what we did to Kreese. The only solution would be to take out the entire cartel. He thinks he can blow up the whole cartel himself. He thinks he can fix this by himself, but all he can do is get himself killed." Johnny murmured. Everyone was speechless. No one knew what to say. Miguel was gone, and chances are they would never see him again. Around a minute was spent in total silence as the group absorbed what Johnny had just told them, but after that time, it was Sam who finally broke the speechless, motionless silence. She stormed over to Johnny and slapped him across the face. HARD. Tears were streaming down her face at this point as she grabbed a surprised Johnny by the collar of his shirt.

"HOW COULD YOU LET HIM DO THIS?!" Sam screamed at him, sobbing. "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO KEEP HIM SAFE!"

All Johnny could do was look down in shame.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He whispered, letting Sam shove him backwards. At this point, the group finally got over their shock, and Daniel and Amanda stood in front of Sam and held her back. Daniel looked at Johnny with a heavy expression on his face and sighed.

"So what now, Johnny? We're supposed to just say sayonara and forget all about him?" Daniel asked. Johnny took a deep breath and shook his head.

"No. We need to stop him before he gets killed." Johnny said.

"What if he can do it?" Demitri asked, suddenly. "What if he can get to the cartel who did all of this to him?"

"He can't." Sam snapped, sniffing back tears. "He's out on his own with no support."

"We could support him." Demitri said. Johnny looked at Demitri and shook his head.

"Look, that's exactly what I wanted to talk to you guys about." Johnny said. "Miguel's been there for all of us when we've needed it most. We can't just turn our back on him. Look, I need everyone on board if we're going to pull this off. We need to go down to Mexico, find Miguel and stop him before he gets himself killed…"

Within a day, all of them were in Mexico…

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Miguel took a deep breath as he stopped walking outside a house. Miguel smiled to himself. Inside the gates was probably his only friend he had in the whole city, and probably one of the most useful allies he had: it was his aunt, Elena, someone he had grown up right around the corner from, but moved to Mexico around the same time as when him and his mom had moved to the States. Even better and more ideal was the fact that Elena was a member of the National Intelligence Secretariat - the foreign security agency of Ecuador, the CIA equivalent of Ecuador.

Miguel clenched his jaw and, hiding in the trees so as to not be seen, he scaled the wall of the ten foot gate. After successfully climbing over, he snuck around to the back door and jimmied the lock. He was completely silent and it was 5 in the morning so his aunt was probably still asleep. He tiptoed up to the bedroom, where his aunt was sleeping, and then placed a hand over her mouth to wake her up but so she wouldn't shout in surprise when she saw him. Sure enough, she leapt to her feet as she woke up but she relaxed when she saw him.

"Miguelito." His aunt Elena said, a worried look on her face. "People are looking for you."

"Who?" Miguel asked.

"Well, everyone. The cartel, the Mexican government. Your name is on the kill list. What are you doing here?" She asked. Miguel took a deep breath.

"The cartel took everything from me, and as long as they're alive, my friends are in danger. I can't let that stand." Miguel said, quietly but firmly.

"What do you want me to do?" Elena asked.

"I need to stay here for a couple of days, if that's okay." Miguel asked.

"Of course." Elena replied. "Anything else?"

Miguel nodded and pulled out three identical phones from his bag. They weren't his phones, but rather the ones he had found on both Kreese, Silver and two of the cartel associates he had taken out.

"I think these phones are part of a batch." Miguel explained. "The IMEIs are only 12 numbers apart. There must be more phones from the same series being used right now by cartel associates of the people I got these from. Can you help me?"

"Not from here, but I have a tech guy at our embassy." She said.

"Well, they probably get new phones every week or so we have to be quick." He said. She nodded and took the phones from him. She then took a deep breath and then shuddered.

"You should really take a shower." She said. "I have some of my ex's clothes in that drawer. They should fit you."

Miguel chuckled and stood up, walking into the bathroom.

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Johnny walked out of the motel room they had rented, and he unlocked the trunk of his car. Reaching under a fabric cover, he pulled out a concealed duffel bag. As he locked the car, he turned around to see Daniel facing him.

"What do you got there?" He demanded. Johnny's heart dropped. He was trying to deliver supplies to Miguel to help him on his mission, but the others and Daniel in particular were extremely against this. Daniel was in Mexico to try and talk Miguel out of doing it.

"Mind if I take a look?" He asked. Johnny reluctantly handed over the bag to Daniel, and he opened it. He first of all pulled out a bundle of cash that was in one of the side layers. "Well, I know this isn't for you. Or this." He said, pulling out a fake passport with Miguel's face in it. "Where is he?" Daniel demanded.

"I don't know." Johnny murmured. Daniel rolled his eyes.

"Okay, where are you supposed to deliver this then?" He asked.

"Nowhere." Johnny replied.

"Johnny, what are you trying to do?" He growled.

"She was just a nurse!" Johnny shouted, referring to Carmen of course. "She did X-Rays! But I brought her family into this fucking Karate world!"

"Johnny, it wasn't your fault. What do you want me to say?"

"Don't say anything!" Johnny yelled.

"Then what do you want me to do?" Daniel asked gently.

"Bring her back!" He demanded. Daniel sighed.

"I wish I could, but I can't." Daniel said.

"Then finish the cartel." Johnny growled.

"We can't do that either." Daniel stated.

"Since when?!" Johnny shouted. "You never say that! This Karate war NEVER should have heated up as much as it did! Her death was both of our faults! You and me! But we survived, and now you're saying there's nothing we can do for her but you're just not willing!"

"I AM WILLING, BUT WE CANNOT LOSE ANYONE ELSE!" Daniel bellowed back. "Do you hear me?! So tell me where he is unless you want him dead, too…"

Hey, so basically, when writing a story, I tend to start planning a month or so in advance. Therefore, I was just wondering what kind of a story you guys would like to read next? Bear in mind, this story was my first ever Cobra Kai story so the next few will be A LOT better as I am still learning. Are there any pairings or couples in particular that you would like to see a story about, and are there any plot lines that you guys would like to see? There is still a long way of this story left, but I like to plan in advance, and I will give you guys some options closer to that time. Just want to hear ideas now.