PROLOGUE

So this is going to be a short story. Probably not too long. Just an intriguing concept that I thought would be interesting to write as it delves deep into the emotions of the characters during this bombshell of an event. This was supposed to be a joint story with irwindiaz11, but unfortunately they have had to pull out last minute so I'm starting it myself and maybe they'll join later.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, here we are! The final of the Under 18 All-Valley Karate tournament!" Ron, the All-Valley presenter announced. "Who will take home that prestigious crown of being our 51st champion. Will it be one of last year's finalists, fighting out of the legendary Cobra Kai Karate, Robby Keene?!"

A spotlight briefly shone brightly on Robby, who was flanked by Sensei Kreese, Sensei Silver and Sensei Barnes. Three of the most ruthless, merciless and powerful Cobra Kai senseis of all time, all of whose futures relied on the result of their protege's upcoming fight. Robby's heart pounded. The afternoon had been an absolute whirlwind for him so far. Easily making it through the preliminary rounds, Robby had also cruised through the quarter finals, but it was in the semis when things came to a screeching halt. For his semi-final fight, he had been announced against arguably the toughest competitor in the tournament: Miguel. Miguel had always been a thorn in Robby's side ever since the day Robby met him, and to be up against a Miguel who had been trained by some of the most elite offense-minded and defense-minded senseis in the Valley… Robby wasn't looking forward to that.

And as Robby had expected, it was the toughest fight he had had since the school fight 9 months ago. The two of them knew each other's styles so well having both trained with both dojos so it became less a karate fight and more like a chess match, the two of them just waiting for the other to make that costly mistake and pounce on it. It was a couple of minutes into the fight when Robby finally realised something… you can play chess all you want, but if someone takes a hammer to a chess board, no way in hell the opponent is winning. Robby turned all of his attention towards the one area he knew Miguel was weakest: his back. Robby pounded on that injury over and over again, watching as Miguel grew weaker and weaker, his face slowly contorting into expressions of excruciating agony, before eventually, the defending champion finally collapsed. 2-2 and Miguel was in too much pain to stand up, let alone continue fighting. He was forced to concede and a now weakened and exhausted Robby booked himself a place in the finals against someone he assumed would be a much easier fight than Miguel…

"Or… one of the semi finalists from last year, fighting out of Miyagi-Do Karate, HAWKKKK!"

Hawk didn't even react as he heard his name being called. Normally he would do something to either psych his opponent or endear himself to the crowd, but this time, he was too focussed to think about anything else. He was in the zone, and all of the raucous cheering in the arena had diminished to white noise around him. He was feeling the pressure of not just Miyagi-Do, but the sake of the whole Valley on his shoulders. If he lost this fight, Cobra Kai would be in the Valley forever and God only knew how many innocent people Cobra Kai would beat up or brainwash into joining their side. Although Hawk didn't show it on the outside, as he glanced down the line at the teenager who had broken Miguel's back and had obliterated any and every opponent he had come up against, a tremor of fear ran up and down his spine. He was nervous. Very nervous.

"Well… we know that these two gentlemen put on an extremely memorable show last year when they faced off in the semi finals, and we can only hope that they will do the same for us here today. Robby Keene walked away last time as victor by disqualification but went on to lose in the final to Miguel Diaz. He's already shown his fangs tonight by defeating our reigning champion in the semi finals, but let's see if he can finally take that elusive crown. Or will it be Hawk, the man who looked like he made it to the finals without even breaking a sweat? Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, let's get this party started!"

With that, Ron walked off the mat and over to the side of the room, and a referee stepped onto the mat. Johnny, Daniel, Kreese, Silver and Barnes were all instructed to step away from the mat, so they could do nothing more than watch on nervously as the referee stood between the fighters and instructed them to show sportsmanship. The two reluctantly bowed to each other, not taking their eyes off each other as they simultaneously slowly leaned down. If looks could kill, the two of them would have eviscerated each other. After what seemed like an eternity to the fighters and the onlooking Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do members but was really just a matter of seconds, the ref took a step back and the fight began…

The fight started out expectedly slow, the two of them sizing each other up, waiting for the other to pounce so they could capitalise on any missteps. As the two circled each other like lions in the ruthless savannah, Robby glanced briefly at Kreese. His mentor and sensei nodded faintly at Robby, indicating for him to attack, and Robby clenched his jaw before lunging at Hawk.

As Hawk had expected, Robby had made the first lunge at him. Normally it would be him immediately going on the offensive, but his months in Miyagi-Do had taught him otherwise. The mohawked teenager expertly sidestepped the brunette, before throwing a sweep at Robby's leg. Anyone else probably would have gone down at that, but Hawk quickly learned that Robby was a tier higher than anyone he had ever fought before. Robby wasn't at all fazed, let alone tripped up, by the sweep. He easily skipped over Hawk's leg and with Hawk off-balanced, Robby lunged at him and laid a vicious kick to Hawk's stomach. As Robby was about to continue pummelling Hawk, the ref quickly pulled him away.

Robby 1-0 Hawk

The referee walked over to Hawk and held out a hand to help him up, but as Hawk looked up and saw Robby smirking at him, he gritted his teeth in anger and slapped the referee's outstretched hand away. The fight was long from being over, and he wasn't about to give Robby the psychological advantage over him by being weak and needing help to stand up. Hawk gathered himself to his feet and the ref instinctively stood between the two fighters again. Hawk looked sideways and saw Kreese, Silver and Barnes all grinning toothily at him, euphoric expressions on their faces. A flash of rage stabbed through Hawk's body, re-energising him. He was going to win this fight, and shove those triumphant looks down Cobra Kai's throats.

The fight quickly restarted and as Robby charged again, this time Hawk was a lot more prepared. The two of them engaged for several moments in an intense battle of athleticism, the pair's superior combination of agility and strength locking horns with one another as they weaved, dodged, punched, kicked, trying to break through the wall of defense both had up. Eventually, just as Hawk was starting to lose some of his strength, he made that decisive move. He took a risk, taking a step back and shifting his balance to his back leg, seemingly stumbling a little. Robby, sensing an opening, charged at him but before he could make contact, Hawk connected with a vicious spinning heel kick to the back of Robby's head.

Robby 1-1 Hawk

Robby fell down, and Hawk stood over him, winking at him and sending him the exact same cocky look Robby had sent him moments earlier. He watched as Robby's face flair with the exact same wrath his own had and nodded to himself. Robby was angry, and that meant that Hawk had nudged him off his game and he was likely now to make mistakes.

Meanwhile, at the corner of the mat, Johnny and Daniel stood together, watching the fight unfold, anxiousness written all over their faces. They had tried incessantly since Robby had joined Kreese to get the boy out of Cobra Kai's grasp, but unfortunately Kreese had sunk his fangs so deep into Robby and had manipulated him so intricately that there was nothing they could possibly do. The best option and only option they had left was for Hawk to beat Robby right now and then force Kreese to leave town. And then with Kreese gone, hopefully Robby could begin to let go of his hate towards Daniel and Johnny, the hate that Kreese had been feeding on to rope Robby into his malicious scheme.

When the fight recommenced, the two were clearly still licking their wounds from their last round, so both were slightly sluggish right from the get-go. They were waiting for the other to make the move, and were relying on purely defensive maneuvers until they could catch their breaths.

Finally, when Robby had recharged all of his strength back, he summoned a spurt of power and lunged at Hawk, unleashing a flurry of furious kicks and punches and unfortunately, some of them found their target perfectly. Hawk crashed backwards and hit the mat with a loud THUMP!

Robby 2-1 Hawk

1 point. Robby was one point from victory. He could practically taste it. He was one punch away from pulling the grandest "fuck you" he had ever pulled over Daniel and Johnny. Them and their entire dojo had done nothing but let him down and hurt him his entire life, and he was finally strong enough and in the perfect position to get his retaliation.

But if only it were that easy. If anything, the last attack had incentivised Hawk even more, so when the teen got to his feet, nothing but determination was etched on his face. Well, determination, and a little bit of desperation had crept up into him. He was one wrong move from being out of the tournament. One mistake and he would be letting down everyone he cared about.

Hawk walked back to his corner before the start of the round, and he turned to an apprehensive Johnny and Daniel.

"So what's the strategy?" Hawk asked them. Daniel and Johnny looked at each other and the two of them had a silent conversation with their eyes, before eventually turning to Hawk and nodding.

"Okay, here's the plan." Daniel said, sounding slightly unsure with himself. "You need to use that Miyagi-Do move I taught you a couple of weeks ago."

Hawk raised an eyebrow. A few weeks ago, Daniel had taught him some kind of top secret Miyagi-Do pressure point move that effectively temporarily paralysed the opponent's limbs long enough to give them the opportunity to win the fight. But to Hawk, Johnny, Miguel and all of the other former Cobras' dismay, Daniel had forbidden them to use the move in the tournament as it was supposedly purely for self defense and could potentially do severe damage to opponents. Therefore, he made them promise to only use it in street fights where it was their very last resort. 6 months ago, Hawk would have definitely ignored a request like that, especially if it came from someone like Sensei Larusso, but despite everything, Hawk had actually gained a respect for that man. Sure Miyagi-Do was nowhere near as badass as Cobra Kai, but upon training with Miyagi-Do for nearly 6 months, he had discovered that there was a lot more to Miyagi-Do than the pussy tactics that first met his eye. Therefore, reluctantly, Hawk had agreed to keep the move out of his tournament arsenal and he was shocked to be hearing the words come out of the man's mouth.

"Are you… are you sure?" Hawk asked in disbelief. Daniel nodded, more confident now.

"Yeah, I am. It's for the greater good of everyone." Daniel replied. "Now go out there and win this thing!"

Hawk rubbed his hands together in anticipation and walked back onto the mat. The two scowled at each other, Robby resting on his heels slightly as he knew he had all but won the fight. He knew that it was up to Hawk to attack him, which given what he knew about the mohawked boy, would probably happen very, very soon. But to his shock, it didn't. Hawk just stared at him, his hands raised and ready, waiting for Robby to strike. Eventually, Robby did, swinging a ferocious hand combination at Hawk. Hawk smirked. Time to strike…

As Robby sent a vicious hook punch at Hawk's head, Hawk intercepted it by punching him to the armpit, using Daniel's pressure point tactics that he had taught them while they were training together. He completely immobilised Robby's left arm, and as Robby sent a punch with the right, he immobilised that one too. Robby and all of Cobra Kai could only watch on, terrified, as Hawk took Robby down to the ground, and solidified his point with a powerful punch to the solar plexus, leaving Robby on the ground, coughing and spluttering.

Robby 2-2 Hawk

On his hands and knees and wheezing for breath after the wickedly placed punch, Robby took several moments to gain his breath and regain full movement in his arms. He had no idea what had just happened to his limbs; it was something he had never seen before, and he was absolutely terrified. It had rendered him defenseless in a matter of seconds, sending an emotional blow to him almost as strong as the physical one. He was for some reason taken back to his child, when his life was in wreckage: an alcoholic mother; no father; being bullied in school; being dumber than everyone else; not being able to do basic things that parents should have taught their kid like even catching a ball; but he wasn't strong enough to fight back. All of those memories were coming rushing back as he was sent back to the days when he was young when bullies would hold his arms immobile behind his back while someone punched every inch of his body.

Robby limped back to his corner, where a desperate looking Kreese grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Okay. Listen up, Keene. You're 1 point away from losing this fucking tournament, so here's what I want you to do…"

Kreese whispered instructions into Robby's ear for several moments, before Robby stepped back onto the mat, ready to fight. The referee nodded at him and Hawk as they faced each other for the final time. The tension in the entire arena was palpable, even among those who had no idea about the Cobra Kai/Miyagi-Do war that was going on. They could sense how much this fight meant to the two dojos, and nerves in the air could probably have been sliced with a knife.

"All right, gentlemen. 2-2, next point wins." The referee informed them. "Ready… FIGHT!"