CHAPTER 2

Hawk's POV

Hawk walked into All-Valley High School the next morning, his head high and an unmistakably grin of triumph etched on his face. He had done it. 6 months of brutally difficult training but it was all worth it because he, Hawk, was the All-Valley Champion and had finally driven Kreese and Cobra Kai out of the Valley. Robby and Cobra Kai had thrown everything at him but in the end, he had come out on top. He was the champion. The top dog in the high school's proverbial food chain. He got to finally be the one to lift that first place trophy after being forced to spend the past 2 years playing second fiddle to Miguel, Robby, Sam and Tory. Well, after beating Sam in the quarter finals, Tory in the semis and Robby in the finals, no one would be underestimating his power now.

Normally, in the mornings, when Hawk would grab his books and things for the day from his locker, he would have to shove his way through a tidal wave of students walking to their first class. However today, as Hawk pushed open the doors and stepped into the school, the normally jam-packed corridors parted like the Red Sea when he walked by. He felt every eye in the hallway on him, a mixture of admiration and envy on every guy's face, and lust on the face of every girl. It was such a brilliant confidence booster, despite the fact that he was already feeling pretty high about himself.

As Hawk pulled out his books from his locker and threw them into his bag, he suddenly felt his locker door slam shut, and his head shot up to see Sarah, the school's head cheerleader and Queen Bitch, smirking at him

"Hey, Hawk." She purred, licking her lips seductively at him. "Heard you won the tournament yesterday. Congratulations."

"Yeah, thanks." Hawk replied, reopening his locker and continuing to sort his books, frankly quite uninterested at what he knew was about to come. Sure enough…

"So how would you like to try to continue your winning streak tonight by taking me out for dinner tonight and maybe afterwards, you come over to my house. My parents are out of town, so…"

"Thanks, but I, um… I have a girlfriend." Hawk murmured. That's right. Three months ago, he had finally convinced Moon to start talking to him again, and a month later, they had finally gotten back together. Another reason why Hawk's life had reached a new high. He had the girl, the All-Valley crown, he was an honor roll student. Everything was finally clicking into place and despite the loathing he had towards it 6 months ago, he had Miyagi-Do to thank. It had helped him pick his life back up after reaching rock bottom with Cobra Kai and although he would always be a badass and not soft like Sensei Larusso, he did have to give credit where credit was due.

However, despite Hawk saying this, Sarah wasn't deterred. She merely leaned in closer so their faces were practically touching.

"Doesn't bother me if it doesn't bother you." She whispered in his ear. Hawk took a deep breath and shook his head.

"Sorry, but no." Hawk repeated. Sarah raised an eyebrow in disbelief. The richest, hottest girl was not used to being rejected so quickly and easily. It had completely thrown her.

"I… I don't think you understand." Sarah stammered, still leaning uncomfortably close to Hawk. "You get to have sex with me."

"No, I don't think you understand. I. Am. Rejecting. You." Hawk stated, bluntly. "I have a girlfriend now, and I'm not gonna cheat on her. I don't roll that way anymore."

Hawk shut his locker and slung his bag over his shoulder, preparing to head for class and leaving Sarah crimson in embarrassment and horror at her situation. However, after he was a few steps, without even turning around, he called back to Sarah.

"Don't feel too bad. You and I wouldn't have worked anyways!" He called, smirking cockily. "You couldn't handle the Hawk."

With that, Hawk walked down the hall and out of sight, grinning from ear to ear. He felt so amazing about himself. Being hit on by the head cheerleader and rejecting her on top of that was yet another thing to boost his ego when it really didn't need any more boosting.

Hawk turned the corner in the hallway and saw Miguel at his locker, fishing through it for the books he needed for that day. As Hawk saw him, clear discomfort in his spine as he heaved his backpack onto his back, the mohawked boy felt a pang of sympathy. Miguel deserved to be in the final with him, not Robby. It was 2-2 in Miguel's semi-final with Robby and Miguel was dominating the round until that bitch Kreese had instructed Robby to streamline all of his attacks onto Miguel's back, and Miguel couldn't continue any longer. Miguel didn't even technically lose the fight on points. It was tied score when Robby decided to give up on trying to earn points and just whale on Miguel's weakest point, a location where points couldn't even be scored!

Hawk walked over to him and immediately took the bag from him.

"Here, let me take this for you." Hawk offered. Another thing he never would have done back in Cobra Kai as he would have feared it would clash with his badass persona. But now, it was like he had finally found the perfect mix of Hawk and Eli. Miguel nodded gratefully at him.

"Thanks." He murmured, and the two of them started walking towards class together. "Hey, congratulations again on the win, man. You fought really well."

"Thanks, dude." Hawk grinned. "I'm just really lucky I didn't have to fight you in the semis. I know I wouldn't have made it if I did."

Miguel chuckled.

"I'm not so sure about that." Miguel remarked. "You were the strongest fighter out of all of us. You made Sam and Tory look like children in your quarter finals and semi finals. Those were two of the hardest competitors right there. I drew Demetri in mine and won my fight by the same margin you beat Sam and Tory by. You really deserved this win, man. I'm just sorry I couldn't stay for the after party."

"Dude, you were at the hospital. No big deal. How is your back by the way? What did the doctor say?"

"Well, long story short, they told me to rest, gave me pain meds, and basically told me to stop being such a bitch and suck it up."

Hawk laughed.

"Well, next year's tournament is going to be awesome. It'll be the last one we're old enough for and we're both tied at 1 crown each. Next year will be the decider! You just make sure your back's fixed in time for next year's tournament!"

"Hell yeah." Miguel replied as they walked into their first class…

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Mike Barnes POV

"Fucking hell! I can't believe this!" Barnes growled as he sat in the back room of the Cobra Kai dojo, helping to pack up all of the dojo. As Miyagi-Do had won the All-Valley, Kreese was a man of his word and agreed to close down Cobra Kai and leave the Valley forever and the three Cobra Kai senseis had pulled an all-nighter packing stuff into boxes. As Barnes carefully placed mat after mat into boxes, Kreese packing up the office and Silver packing up the main dojo, Barnes felt his rage boil up inside of him, and he turned sideways and threw his fist at the wall, smashing a hole right through it.

CRASH!

Kreese and Silver immediately rushed into the room at the loud sound, and they rolled their eyes when they realised what it was.

"Seriously, Mike? We're in a Karate dojo filled with punching bags and you punch the wall? Some things never change, huh?" Silver chuckled. Mike scowled at him.

"How can you be making fucking jokes? This is absolute bullshit! John, why are we leaving the Valley?!"

"We made a deal, Mike." Kreese murmured, defeated.

"Fuck that!" Barnes exclaimed. "There's nothing legally binding you to uphold the deal! There's nothing stopping you from just staying!"

Kreese shook his head.

"You know me, Barnes. They can call me a psychopath. Evil. A monster. But one thing they can't and I won't let them call me is that I'm not a man of my word." Kreese replied. "Now keep packing this shit up. We need to be out of here by tonight before the landlord comes and sees that hole you made in the wall."

Barnes nodded, but inside, he was still in turmoil. He was more furious than he had ever been in his entire life. This wasn't the first time Kreese had shut down Cobra Kai but this time felt different. This time felt permanent. At age 74, Kreese would've never taken over the role of sensei here if not for Johnny doing the heavy lifting and creating the dojo first, and this meant that he probably wouldn't reopen it ever again. This absolutely killed Barnes. After high school and his loss to Daniel Larusso, Barnes had lived a very troubled life. He had enlisted in the Marine Corps at age 19 to try and get away from the horrible memories of his loss and letting Cobra Kai down, but he ended up being kicked out 6 months into training for getting into a brawl with another trainee. He then lived all around the country, doing whatever odd jobs he could possibly find. Until this year, when Kreese called him…

When Kreese called him up 6 months ago and asked him to come to the dojo, it had been a turning point in Barnes' life. Being a co-sensei in Cobra Kai for the half a year had been so much more than just a job… it had given him a home again. A home that had been blown to shreds by a group of nerdy teenagers who had somehow managed to sneak a victory over his students. Well, he wished that were true. They didn't sneak any victory. They had deserved to win as the Cobras were far, far too weak. Barnes had no idea what had happened to this generation. His generation had been a million times stronger than this group of weak-ass bitches. And leading those kids had been none other than old Danny boy and his former Cobra buddy Johnny Lawrence. Those two men were the bane of his existence. The assholes had completely ruined his life by forcing them to close down the dojo and he couldn't let that stand. He couldn't let that go unpunished. He needed revenge. But how? What could he do to hurt those two men in the worst possible way?

As the early morning drew on and Barnes packed box after box after box, he could feel his anger bubbling up inside him like a volcano, caged for now but ready to erupt at any moment. Eventually, a brilliant plan came to mind to get back at Daniel Larusso and Johnny Lawrence. A terrible, yet brilliant plan. He had realised what those men cared about most in this world… their kids. By eliminating all of the kids who had put him in this very situation, he would not only be hurting them, but he would also be severely hurting the two adults who cared about those kids so much. Any ounce of common sense that had previously been in that magma chamber of anger called Barnes' brain had surely melted at this point, leaving him with no inhibition about his terrifying plan. After several moments of thought, weighing the risks and the benefits of the plan in his head, Barnes clenched his jaw and nodded. He was going to do it.

"Barnes! Hey, Barnes!"

Barnes was suddenly pulled from his thoughts when he heard Silver calling his name. He forced himself back to reality to see Silver and Kreese standing over him, curious.

"Huh? What? What's going on?" Barnes stammered.

"Dude, you looked so out of it there. You smoke a joint or two this morning before you got here or what?" Silver remarked. Barnes shook his head.

"Sorry. Just got a bit distracted." Barnes murmured. "I'm gonna go grab us all some breakfast. I'll be right back."

The two other men nodded and Barnes walked out of the back room and into the office, and immediately walked to the safe in the corner of the room where they kept all of the money they had made from lesson fees.

"Hey, Silver! What's the code for the safe?! I need to borrow some money!" Barnes called.

"Seriously, Barnes? You don't have thirty bucks in your wallet to buy us breakfast with? How fucking poor are you?!" Silver chuckled.

"Shut the fuck up!" Barnes snapped back. Silver told him the code moments later and Barnes opened the safe. However, rather than grabbing from the plentiful amount of money at the front of the safe, Barnes reached his hand deep inside until he was hitting the felt, black wall of the back of the safe. His hand scuttled around the container for several moments before he finally found what he was looking for: a jet-black, steely cold handgun. Barnes quickly slipped it into his pocket, before leaving the dojo and getting into the car. When he turned on the ignition, the radio automatically started playing.

"All the other kids with the pumped up kicks

You better run, better run, outrun my gun"

"What the fuck is this music?" Barnes murmured to himself, the lyrics of the song Pumped Up Kicks completely skipping over his head, but the rhythm and melody alone was enough for him to turn off the music. Music nowadays is actual dog-crap compared to back in the 80s, he thought to himself. With the radio off, drove away. As he drove, he turned on his phone and opened his navigation app.

"Where would you like to go today?" The Navigation system's voice command asked him. Although Barnes had just turned 50, he still knew how to use modern day technology so he didn't hesitate before responding.

"West Valley High School." He replied, putting his gun down on the seat beside him. Several moments later, the navigation system had set up a map with the directions to the school and was announcing that it had understood his request.

"West Valley High School. 12 minutes and 15 kilometes away…"