CHAPTER 25

10 minutes later, Sam had gathered 4 other Miyagi-Dos, and they quickly made their way to Golf-n-Stuff, geared up and ready for their first real confrontation with Cobra Kai since the school fight. Their faces all donned determined, fearless expressions on their faces. Despite Daniel's firm instructions not to physically take on Cobra Kai, they all knew that this was a fight they NEEDED to compete in. They were being walked over by Cobra Kai every day at school, West Valley's stricter regulations about fighting making it nearly impossible to fight back, so this was their chance to shut Cobra Kai up and show that they couldn't be bullied.

Chris met the 5 other Miyagi-Dos at his arcade stand, Samantha leading the group and upon seeing him, running over to him.

"Where are they?" She demanded.

"They snuck into the old laser tag place next door." Chris replied.

"How many of them?" Sam asked.

"5 of them." He replied.

"6 of us. I like our odds." She smirked. However, her fellow Miyagi-Do students were much less confident than she was.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Demetri asked, nervously. "I mean your dad said…"

"I know what my dad said." Sam snapped. "But I also know that Cobra Kai isn't going to stop pushing us around at school unless we show them we're not to be messed with. And we can't do that on school property. This is our chance to fight back."

The rest of the group nodded, Sam having filled them with new-found courage. They then all prowled towards the abandoned laser tag arena. Game on…

Meanwhile, inside the laser tag place, Mitch was throwing some of the stuffed toys they had robbed from Chris' stand into the air, and Hawk was trying to tornado kick them out of mid air.

"Ohhoho nice one." Mitch remarked, as Hawk made perfect contact with the toy and sent it flying across the arena. "Can't believe Miguel told us we shouldn't come here."

"I told you. Miguel's not worthy to be our leader." Hawk spat. "He's literally in love with a Miyagi-Do."

"Yeah, 'Rhea's a big pussy." Kyler remarked as he sipped a beer he had been given. "He belongs in Miyagi-Do with the rest of them."

Hawk nodded, his eyes glinting with power. He was ready to challenge Miguel, ready to wrest from him the spot of top dog at Cobra Kai. That boy was no long his friend: he was now merely un unworthy adversary.

"Exactly. You guys want to be proper Cobras? You follow me. If you stop listening to Miguel and start listening to me, we can demolish Miyagi-Do once and for all." Hawk told them, eliciting cheers and whoops from the Cobras. Just then, everyone's thoughts were cut off as the lights in the arena suddenly cut off.

"What the hell?" Kyler grumbled. Suddenly, they heard footsteps behind them and they spun around to face the doorway. Their jaws slightly dropped in surprise. 6 Miyagi-Dos were coming pouring into the room, all of them with their sleeves rolled up and their fists clenched, ready for battle.

Sam led the group forward and the 6 of them stood before the Cobras, no fear or nerves at all evident in their eyes.

"What do you want?" Hawk spat. Sam scowled daggers at him and stared him straight in the eye as she responded.

"Payback…"

With that, Miyagi-Do charged…

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The fight began with Miyagi-Do completely with Miyagi-Do having the upper-hand. They had taken Cobra Kai by surprise and that had completely played into their hands. Sam immediately lunged at Hawk, dodging his off-balance strikes and using his sloppiness from shock to her advantage. She grabbed his punching arm and used it to flip him onto the ground. He groaned in pain as he hit the concrete with a loud SLAM, but before Sam could hit him one more time to make sure he didn't get back up, she felt herself get tackled through one of the thin plastic walls of the maze, her back taking the brunt of the impact as Kyler rugby-tackled her and send her crashing down. However, Sam wasn't knocked out, and she was conscious enough to react. As Kyler brought his fists up to start pounding on her as she lay beneath him, Sam quickly grabbed one arm to pull him closer to her. As she pulled Kyler close, she used her legs to kick him backwards as hard as she could, sending him flying backwards and hitting the back wall with a thump.

Meanwhile, Chris was absolutely dominating Mitch. Mitch had lunged with his usual, overly-aggressive offense, and Chris had used that to his advantage, using Mitch's momentum to throw him against the wall, before kicking him to the leg to bring him to his knees, and finish with a heavy blow to the back of the head.

As Hawk slowly struggled to his feet, he looked around and took in the situation before him. He saw Kyler lying only partially conscious on the ground. He saw Mitch getting pounded by Chris. He saw Demetri somehow holding his own against two Cobras. His friends were all getting beat up left and right, and at this rate, they wouldn't be able to last much longer. Hawk groaned and pulled out his phone. He knew that although he really didn't want to, he could make one call that would end the fight right then and there. Sucking in his pride, he dialled the number…

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8 pm. Tory looked at her watch as she left the restaurant after her double shift, her eyes already heavy with exhaustion. It had been an extremely long couple of weeks for her. Ever since her confrontation with Miguel, rather than reflecting on what he had said, she had become even more ruthless than ever. She realised that even the people she trusted most would stab her in the back, and unless she needed to get so strong she wouldn't be able to take it. So she spent longer and longer each day in the dojo. Every waking moment she wasn't at work or helping her family, she was in that backroom, throwing blows at the various punching targets until her knuckles got bruised.

She was about to head for the dojo that night for an hour or two of individual training, but as she walked over to her bike, she looked up and stopped dead in her tracks. The person she right now hated second most in the world (second to Larusso of course) was standing in front of her bike, a nervous expression on his face.

"M-m-miguel?" Tory stammered, shocked. Miguel looked at her with an anxious look on his face. He was praying that she didn't swing a punch at him before he said what he needed to say.

"Hey, um… look… I know we're not like on great terms right now but we need to get to Golf-n-Stuff right now. Hawk called me and apparently a bunch of Miyagi-Dos ambushed them and they need our help. So could you please, please come with me?"

Tory looked at him for several moments, her emotions wanting nothing more than to deck Miguel in the face as hard as she could, knock him out and leave him there, but she forced herself to push her emotions down for the sake of Cobra Kai. Kreese and that dojo meant a lot to her, and unlike the boy standing in front of her, she was loyal to the things and people she loved. She eventually nodded.

"Okay, let's go…"

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Sam smiled to herself. This fight was going better than she could've imagined it. They were absolutely dominating, and were sending a clear message to Cobra Kai: don't fuck with us. They were proving to Cobra Kai for the first time since the school fight that they couldn't be bullied, that they were stronger than Cobra Kai.

However, just as she was about to call off the Miyagi-Dos and walk out the arena victorious, everything changed in a heartbeat…

"Sam Larusso!"

A piercing voice sliced through the air, stabbing Sam in the chest. She knew that voice. She could recognise that voice from a mile away. It was the girl who had tried to kill her with a spiked bracelet. The girl she had been having nightmares about ever since the school fight. The girl she had hoped she would never have to fight ahead, but deep down knew that she would.

"Where are you bitch?!" Tory called out into the darkness. Luckily, Sam was hidden deep within the maze so Tory couldn't see her at that moment.

"You try to ambush us?! Get ready to pay for it!"

This new voice struck Sam just as hard, if not harder than Tory's voice before. She also would have recognised this voice in a crowd of millions. It was Miguel Diaz, but not the Miguel Diaz she knew. This Miguel Diaz sounded completely different. It was her first time seeing or hearing him since the school fight and she immediately noticed the change in his tone of voice. He sounded furious, aggressive, just about any attribute that Cobra Kai praised.

"Hey Tory?" Miguel murmured quietly to her as she stood next to him, eyeing all of the Miyagi-Dos that were approaching them. They were all there: Demetri, Chris, all of them. Well, all but one person: the person who had initiated the fight in the first place. Miguel had originally been astonished when Hawk had called him and told him this, but Miguel had quickly gotten over his shock and replaced it with a stony expression. His brain turned numb, cancelling out all emotion inside him. It was a skill Kreese had taught him, and he knew it would serve him well. He forgot about who he was going into a fight against. As far as he was concerned, she started the fight. She needs to be prepared to finish it.

"Yeah?" Tory asked. Miguel clenched his jaw and balled his hands tightly into fists.

"No mercy." He murmured quietly. Tory nodded.

"Damn right." She replied, and the two of them then lunged at the approaching Miyagi-Dos…

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For two people who hated each other as much as Tory and Miguel did, they were a surprisingly great team when it came to fighting. They managed to pretty easily outclass all of the Miyagi-Dos that were near them, their striking, blocking and grappling superior to all of the Miyagi-Dos (Sam was still nowhere to be found).

Right before Miguel started fighting, he closed his eyes for a moment, allowing all sound around him to diminish to a halt. He knew he was walking into a fight with a numbers disadvantage, so he needed to prepare to fight multiple Miyagi-Dos at once. After a couple of moments, he finally reached utmost calmness. He felt almost zen in that moment. He could sense the movement around him, and he knew that was what would keep him safe in a number handicap fight. He then lunged at his first opponents, outstriking one of his opponents and then grabbing and throwing them into his second, causing both boys to go tumbling into each other and crashing into the ground. They landed in a heap and lay there, unmoving. Miguel nodded. Two down, four to go.

Miguel's next opponent was someone he knew very well: Demetri. For a moment, Miguel felt a pang of guilt. What was he doing here? He was about to beat up a guy who hadn't wanted any part in this Karate war to begin with, and only joined because Hawk was bullying him. However, as he remembered that it was Miyagi-Do who started the fight, any sympathy he had for the guy vanished as he struck the boy as hard as he could. Fortunately, it only took a single block and then kick to send the boy crashing to the ground and Miguel wasn't about to continue pounding on him. He looked sideways and saw Tory dispatching of Chris and the other Miyagi-Do fighting her, before turning to face him. At this point, all of the previously injured Cobras were starting to find their feet again, and many of them continued to fight the Miyagi-Dos that Miguel and Tory had already defeated. But Miguel and Tory ignored them. They both knew exactly what the other was thinking. There was exactly 1 person left, and she was somewhere in the maze…

Meanwhile, in her hiding spot, Sam was immobile. She tried to will her body to move but her mind wouldn't let her. It was being conquered by all of the thoughts that were racing through her head. She knew she was being hunted in the maze by most of Cobra Kai, including both Tory AND Miguel. Her heart rattled against her chest in fear. She could barely beat Tory, let alone Miguel and the rest of Cobra Kai as well! How was she supposed to protect herself?! Sam willed her thoughts to slow so she could breathe but they wouldn't. Her breaths came in gasps and she felt like she was about to black out. It was like her mind was being torn apart and was unable to send messages to her body to move. She could hear her friends being beaten up all around her, many of them calling out her name in agony, begging her to help them, but she couldn't move.

Tory turned to Miguel.

"Let's split up. You look on the right side of the maze. I'll look on the left. We'll meet on the other side." She said. Miguel nodded and the pair took off into the vast arena, lions hunting down the final gazelle…

Miguel stumbled through the maze, looking through every nook, every crevice, trying to find the final Miyagi-Do. Normally, in this situation, Miguel would leave because clearly the Miyagi-Do isn't looking for a fight, but this scenario was different. Sam started the fight. Sam chose to put her friends in danger by starting an ambush against Cobra Kai, and stopping now would show Miyagi-Do that Cobra Kai are soft and easy to be messed with.

So Miguel continued to methodically search the entire right side of the maze for Sam, knowing that eventually either him or Tory would find her. And he was right. About halfway through the maze, Miguel found her. Preparing to call to Tory that she was there, Miguel's words got lost on the way up as he looked down and saw Sam's facial expression. She looked like hell, simple as that. Sam was curled up in a ball in the corner of the passageway, trembling. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she silently sobbed and looked up at Miguel, bracing herself for a beatdown. However, that beatdown never came. After a couple of moments of staring at her, trying to bring himself to fight her, he groaned in pain. He couldn't do this. She looked like she had more than suffered enough already, and he couldn't bring himself to beat her up more. He looked her straight in the eye and spoke in a low voice so the rest of Cobra Kai couldn't hear.

"Get out of here." Miguel murmured quietly, before continuing through the maze, leaving Sam physically unharmed. He made it to the end and found himself face to face with Tory again.

"You find her?" Tory demanded. Miguel shook his head.

"Nah. Guess she escaped before we got here." Miguel replied. "Let's get back to the front."

Tory nodded and the two of them started to make their way back to the front of the arena, where the rest of the students were. Meanwhile, at the front, Hawk had fully regained consciousness and decided to send one final blow to Miyagi-Do. Charging over to an only barely conscious Demetri, he dragged his former best friend and current enemy to his feet and threw him to the ground, rolling him onto his back in the exact same position Miguel had had Robby in all those months ago.

"No! No! Eli! Please! Stop!" Demetri cried as he felt Hawk tighten his grip on Demetri's arm, preparing to snap it. All of Cobra Kai including Tory, who had gone ahead of Miguel to the front of the arena as Miguel walked over slower, stood behind and watched Hawk prepare to break Demetri's arm.

"Do it! Come on! Do it!" All of the Cobra Kais: Tory, Kyler, Mitch, Rickenberger, among others, called to Hawk, encouraging him to break Demetri's arm. At this point, Miguel had almost made it to the front of the arena, and his eyes widened as he saw what was unfolding.

"Hawk, what the hell are you doing?!" Miguel shouted, running over towards him. Hawk looked up and saw him. He scowled. Miguel trying to talk him out of hurting a Miyagi-Do who had started a fight against them literally went against everything Cobra Kai stood for. That boy wasn't fit to be leader.

"What you didn't have the sack to do." Hawk growled in reply. A devastating CRACK filled the air, followed by a piercing scream that stabbed Miguel straight in the heart. He had finally made it over to them at this point, and he didn't hesitate to tackle Hawk as hard as he could, throwing him against the wall with all his might. Hawk slid to the ground, dazed, but was back up moments later.

"You wanna do this, Diaz?" Hawk snapped, squaring up to Miguel, their faces inches away from each others' as they glared daggers at one another, both ready to spring to action the moment the other threw the first punch.

"Get out of here. Now." He growled, shoving Hawk backwards. "ALL OF YOU, GET OUT OF HERE NOW!"

Miguel's deafening, terrifying bellow somehow got through to the rest of the Cobras, and they all shuffled out of the arena as fast as they could. Hawk scowled at Miguel for several more moments, before turning away.

"This isn't over." He growled into Miguel's ear, before turning and following the rest of Cobra Kai out of the dojo. By this point, the other Miyagi-Dos were starting to awake from their unconsciousness, and Sam had gotten over her anxiety attack enough to make her way over. Miguel and Sam stood over Demetri, their rivalry temporarily forgotten, as they listened to him cry in pain. His arm was clearly broken and it was sticking out in a horrifying angle.

"Demetri, we're going to have to help you get up and get over to a car to get you to the hospital." Miguel calmly assured him. However, Demetri wasn't at all happy to hear this. Or rather, he wasn't at all to hear who was talking. He rolled over onto his good arm and turned himself enough for Miguel to see him. Miguel saw tears staining the teenager's cheeks and Demetri's eyes filled with nothing but pure, unadulterated rage towards Cobra Kai and everything it stood for.

"L-leave." Demetri gathered the strength to murmur.

"Demetri. Come on. Let me help you." Miguel stammered.

"LEAVE! Please!" Demetri sobbed. Miguel turned to Sam and she nodded slightly, silently indicating for him to oblige and go. So Miguel turned around and left the arena, leaving the carnage of the fight behind him…