CHAPTER 24

For the next two weeks, tensions in the Valley flared higher than ever, if that was even possible. Miguel's returns had sent shockwaves through the Valley, both reinvigorating Cobra Kai and sending shivers down the spines of Miyagi-Do. For the most part, the Miyagi-Dos had been staying well away from Cobra Kai, but it was getting harder and harder. Every day in school, there was some kind of confrontation between the two sides, not physical yet, but emotional warfare had well and truly begun with psychological mind games, verbal assaults, etc.

One afternoon, Miguel stood with the rest of Cobra Kai, hanging out with them in the dojo as they packed up after training. He was completely silent, and wasn't listening to a word Hawk was saying as his mind was completely out of it. He was too busy thinking about the conversation he had had nearly two weeks ago with the girl at the other side of the dojo. Miguel hadn't spoken to Tory since their massive confrontation at the dojo and to be honest, he didn't care. He was absolutely done with that selfish, immature, infuriating bitch. That was Miguel's life now. He felt more… opinionated than ever. His hatred towards his enemies burned stronger than he had ever felt before, an increase in passion as Kreese called it. According to his sensei, channeling the anger would help him become a better fighter and so far, that had been proving true. It had motivated him to spend more and more time in the dojo every day.

"El Serpiente… you down?" Hawk asked.

Miguel was snapped out of his thoughts and dragged himself back to reality, where he found himself being stared at by the other Cobra Kais.

"I'm sorry what?" Miguel asked, shaking himself out of his daze at the mention of his name.

"We were just saying we're gonna go crash Golf-n-stuff tonight." Hawk said. "I know a couple of Miyagi-Dos got jobs there so we can go and just fuck with them."

Miguel couldn't help but glare at his friend, or rather the man who looked like his old friend Hawk but was seemingly a completely different person. He couldn't believe Hawk could talk so casually about going and confronting the people, some of whom not even a year ago were his closest friends. Although Johnny had been quick to blame Kreese for Hawk's transformation, Miguel wasn't so sure. If anything, hadn't it been Johnny who convinced him to turn into Hawk in the first place? Because that's what Johnny always did… instruct with nothing but confidence and then immediately pass off blame if it all went to shit.

"Nah, man. I'll pass. And you shouldn't do that to them." Miguel replied, causing Hawk to scowl back at him. Hawk was still harboring a lot of resentment towards Miguel since Miguel had gotten back from rehab. Although Hawk had been used to playing second-fiddle to Miguel in karate that previous year, he had assumed that with Miguel's injury, he could finally get the chance to step up and become a leader. When that didn't happen, Hawk reluctantly accepted that, but now Miguel was also telling them to stay away from Miyagi-Do and that… that was where Hawk needed to step in. Since coming back, Miguel had gotten weak, soft, not fit to lead Cobra Kai and he needed to be dethroned of his power.

However, it wasn't Hawk who responded. It was someone else, someone who Miguel disliked even more…

"Why, 'Rhea? You scared? Can't handle a fight outside the dojo in the real world anymore?" Kyler remarked cockily. Yup, that's right, Kyler. A couple of days after Miguel had beaten the crap out him, Kyler had returned to Cobra Kai, saying that Kreese had given him a second chance in Cobra Kai…

Three days after Miguel had beaten Kyler in the fight, he walked into the dojo for training, an almost smile on his face. He couldn't have imagined how good it felt to absolutely dominate his old bully. Sure he had beaten him before in the dining hall fight, but that time he had made use of chairs, trays and any other weapon he could get his hands on. This time he had managed to easily best one of his enemies in a legitimate, hand-to-hand fight on pure merit. He had been a miles better fighter and had asserted his dominance not only over Kyler, but as the apex predator at the top of the karate war food chain in the Valley.

However, Miguel's good mood quickly vanished as he stepped into the dojo and his eyes locked on the figure in the corner of the room. His eyes turned stormy with fury and he charged towards the teenager on the other side of the dojo. Making it over seconds later, he grabbed Kyler by the back of his jacket and yanked him around so he was facing him. Kyler instinctively raised a hand to strike but as soon as he saw who was grabbing him, he thought better of it and his hand dropped limply to his side.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Miguel demanded. Kyler stumbled backwards and raised his hands in a surrendering gesture.

"'Rhea chill! Sensei Kreese told me to come back. Apparently I'm still allowed to train here."

At the mention of Kyler's old nickname for him, anger stabbed through his body like a knife. That same inferno of fury he had felt burning inside him before beating up Kyler last time rushed through him but this time, rather than pounding on Kyler again, he merely grabbed Kyler by the shirt and dragged him so he was only inches away from him.

"Okay, first of all, my name is Miguel. My name is not 'Rhea. You call me 'Rhea one more time and I'll personally make sure you're forced to drink through a straw for the rest of your life." Miguel growled menacingly into his ear, feeling Kyler practically quake in fear before him.

"Y-yes, Miguel. I'm sorry, Miguel." Kyler stammered, terrified of man before him. Miguel nodded.

"Good. You're learning." He remarked. "But know, if you lay a hand on me or anyone I care about and I swear to God you'll regret it."

Kyler trembled and nodded silently, and Miguel pushed him backwards a few steps so Kyler wasn't right in front of him anymore. But Miguel knew he needed to say one more thing to assert more power over Kyler.

"You know, actually thank God you're in Cobra Kai." Miguel murmured to him so only Kyler could hear him. "Because if you and I fought outside this dojo, you would be dead right now. You would be in a box in the ground and I would be in a cell."

Of course Miguel didn't mean it, but his threatening words did the trick just fine. Kyler's face paled and he stumbled away from Miguel, practically pissing himself in fear. How the tables had turned from a year ago…

As Kyler made his remark towards Miguel, Miguel turned towards him and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry, did you say something?" Miguel asked, slowly starting towards him. Kyler quickly remembered who he was talking to, and he blushed furiously.

"Um… no Miguel." Kyler stammered, his head firmly facing the ground with his eyes unable to find the nerve to meet his. Miguel nodded.

"Thought so." He replied, before turning back to the rest of the group.

"Come on, Miguel! Come with us! We get to mess with Miyagi-Do! It'll be fun!" Mitch declared. Miguel shrugged.

"Sorry. I don't need to whale on the other dojo to prove that I have big balls." Miguel responded coolly. "See you guys tomorrow."

With that, Miguel walked out of the dojo, leaving the rest of the Cobra Kais behind, many of whom disgruntled by Miguel's not-so-subtle dig at them.

"So… are we going to still go tonight?" Bert asked. Hawk turned towards him and scowled.

"Of course we're still going, Bert!" He snapped.

"But Miguel said…"

"I don't care what Miguel said!" Hawk shouted at him. "You guys ever stop and think why Miguel says stuff like that? I can tell you, it's not because he cares about us not getting hurt. It's because he cares about THEM not getting hurt. Because he still has a thing for Sam. Because he's still friends with most of that dojo. And sooner or later, Miguel's going to turn to Miyagi-Do permanently, and when that happens, we're going to be sat here with our dicks in our hands, wondering why we ever trusted him. Miguel's going to betray us. He's not a true cobra, and unless we start ignoring him and making our own choices, when he goes over to the other side, he's going to catch us on our heels and we're going to get injured."

"So what do you suggest we do?" Bert asked. At that moment, for the first time, Hawk felt the allegiance of the entire group shining down on him as they awaited his command. He was finally being treated like the leader he deserved to be treated like. He looked at all of them and smirked.

"Well… first of all, we go to Golf-n-stuff…"

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"Here you go! Have a great evening!" Chris said cheerfully to a group of young kids as he handed them their stuffed prizes at the beanbag toss stand at Golf-n-Stuff. It was an evening like any other, and he was really tired. Mr. Larusso was training them longer and longer after school to protect them from Cobra Kai, and balancing that on top of everything else was exhausting. However, he made do with the situation and continued working with his eyes practically closed in exhaustion. However, his eyes quickly snapped open and he felt shivers run down his spine as he heard the unmistakable voice of a group of people he knew very well.

"Well, well, well. Look who it is." Hawk said, as around half of the Cobra Kai dojo strolled over to Chris' stand at the corner of the park and grinned at him.

"What do you guys want?" Chris spat, his hands balling into fists although he knew that with 6 Cobras, him alone didn't stand a chance in a fight. Kyler chuckled at him and raised his hands in a mock-surrender, taking out a massive pile of tokens from his pocket.

"Now, now. We're not here to fight. We just want to use these hard-earned tokens to buy that stuffed panda over there." Kyler said, pointing to the panda at the corner of the prize's wall. It was at the very top too so Chris would unfortunately have to climb a ladder to get to them. But at the end of the day, he was an employee of the park and it was his job, so he was forced to turn around and begin to climb the ladder. The second Chris' back was turned, Cobra Kai launched, charging over the counter and grabbing all of the prizes they could get their hands on, hurling them all over the area, before sprinting away, leaving Chris partially buried in an enormous pile of prizes.

"Thanks, Chris! Tell your mom I miss her!" Mitch called gleefully as the Cobra Kais took off as quickly as they came. Chris scowled daggers at their retreating backs, before pulling out his phone and texting a number…

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Sam was lying on her bed that evening, staring up at the ceiling, merely pondering everything that was going on. Two weeks ago, Daniel had basically told everyone in Miyagi-Do to steer well-clear of Cobra Kai no matter what, and run from a fight with them no matter what. Sam didn't know why the sudden change of heart from her dad as normally he knew that sometimes fights needed to happen for them to stand up for themselves, and especially now given the turmoil the Valley was in. Needless to say Sam wasn't happy. She had been forced to stay quiet as her and all of her Miyagi-Do friends had been picked on at West Valley by the majority of the Cobra Kai dojo, unable to fight back. This new ethos from her dad had started the night after Johnny had come and had a long conversation with her dad, so Sam presumed that her dad was keeping a secret from her about something Johnny had told him. Johnny must have discovered something that was so terrifying and it gave Cobra Kai such an edge over Miyagi-Do that Daniel was scared to let his students even try to fight them.

Suddenly, her phone buzzed and Sam looked at it, noticing that it was a message from Chris on the Miyagi-Do group chat. She read it…

NOW COBRA KAI'S MESSING WITH ME AT WORK SMHHH!

Outrage coursed through Sam's veins as she finally hit her tipping point. She had followed her father's instructions up until now but she was done. They needed to fight back. They needed to show Cobra Kai that they weren't to be messed with. Clenching her phone tightly in her hands, Sam responded.

On my way…