CHAPTER 43

"There were so many of them. We couldn't fight back."

Sam slowly described the experience to her father as he helped her from the kitchen into the living room. Daniel and Amanda, upon seeing the carnage, immediately snapped into action. They quickly swept away all of the shattered glass that was in the living room, and then carried the unconscious and semi-conscious kids all into the room. As they woke up from their temporary dazes, it was a miracle of God that it seemed like none of them had been seriously injured. No broken bones. No muscle tears or anything like that. Thankfully not even any serious head injuries. Asides from several cuts, gashes and bruises all over all of their bodies, they seemed otherwise uninjured. Uninjured but definitely not okay. All of them were severely shaken up by the sudden, ferocious assault by Cobra Kai, so shaken up that the Miyagi-Dos sat side-by-side with the Eagle-Fangs as they recovered themselves without even batting an eye about it. Daniel had immediately also called Johnny, who had quickly made his way over and helped his students. Daniel, Amanda and Johnny were in shock. They had never, in a million years, imagined that Cobra Kai would go so far.

As Daniel and Johnny listened to their students telling them about Cobra Kai's mutilation of them, fury coarsed through them, igniting an inferno that burned inside them. Enough was enough. This was absolute bullshit. Cobra Kai had gone too far and there needed to be consequences. Real consequences. Before they knew it, as soon as the kids had recovered to an extent that they knew that everyone was 100% okay, Daniel and Johnny threw themselves into Daniel's car and they sped off down the street…

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Daniel and Johnny remained silent as they drove down the street, neither of them saying a word but both of them knowing how the other was feeling. They could sense the smoldering fury that the other was feeling, and their eyes both blazed in anger. Daniel tore down the streets of L.A like a mad man, leaving Encino and going down to the much rougher part of the city, to an location oh so familiar to both of them. They arrived, carelessly but quickly parking the car, and they stormed into the building before them, glaring daggers at the serpent logo above the entrance.

As they entered the Cobra Kai dojo, they couldn't help but gasp. It was their first time in the dojo since Kreese's power grab of it all those months ago, and it was safe to say that the dojo had gone through… renovations. It looked so much darker than it used to, with weapons, flags and what looked like military awards adorning the previously blank walls. It looked almost like a movie villain's lair, and Daniel and Johnny had just entered the belly of the beast.

Hearing a bell ring as the two men entered the dojo, Kreese exited his office and when he saw who it was, he chuckled.

"Look who it is. America's favourite couple. I've been expecting a visit from the two of you." He remarked, calmly. Upon looking at Kreese and seeing the lack of remorse about what his dojo did, Johnny immediately lost his cool, beginning to charge at the evil sensei. However, before he could reach him, the door to Kreese's office swung open once again and two more men stepped out, both dressed in Cobra Kai sensei gis. Daniel immediately recognised both of them, and he almost fainted in shoc. His blood ran dead cold. Never in his life had he expected, nor wanted, to see these two men again.

"S-silver? Barnes?" Daniel stammered, his eyes wide in a combination of shock and fear as he looked at the two senseis.

"Well, well, well, Danny boy." Silver purred, his face lifting in a devilish smirk. "Long time no see…"

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"What are you doing here?" Daniel stammered, his face white as a sheet. Johnny had stopped trying to attack the Cobra Kais upon seeing how terrified Daniel suddenly looked and stood still alongside the Miyagi-Do sensei.

"Kreese called us two months ago asking if we could come out and help Cobra Kai. We accepted." Silver replied. Suddenly, everything dawned on Daniel. Everything clicked into place like a terrifying jigsaw puzzle. Why Miguel and Cobra Kai had become so aggressive in such a short period of time. Silver had poisoned them with his quicksilver training method, turning them into cold, merciless, ruthless soldiers.

"You know, we could ask you the same thing. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with your students? I heard they got into a little bit of a scrap earlier." Kreese remarked. Upon hearing this, Johnny again tried to charge at Kreese but this time Daniel was wise enough to grab him and pull him back before he could. He honestly didn't fancy their chances in this 2 on 3 fight in the lair of the Cobras.

"We came here to warn you." Daniel stated. "Your Cobras went too far. They broke into my house. They did I don't even know how much damage to my house, and assaulted my daughter and my other students. We're going to the cops."

Expecting to see Kreese's face turn angry, shocked or at least upset, it was Daniel who turned all of those things as he saw Kreese merely stare at him, deathly calm, and chuckle.

"Oh yeah? You're going to the cops?" He mocked. "Well can I give you a bit of friendly advice? For the sake of you, your dojo, your business and your students, don't."

"Excuse me?" Daniel snapped. Kreese shrugged.

"Well, I'm just saying. If you go to the cops, the only proof any of this happened is the word of your students."

"Yeah, so?" Daniel spat.

"Well, the cops will have the word of two Green Berets in myself and Mr. Silver over here, and the word of a former LAPD cop himself in Mr. Barnes that all of our students were in class in the dojo tonight."

"But that's bullshit!" Daniel cried. Kreese raised an eyebrow.

"Is it? Because here's what I think happened…" He remarked. "I think that Daniel Larusso and Johnny Lawrence started a rivalry 35 years ago that has poisoned this generation of the Valley even now. After the school fight in August, the students of both Daniel Larusso and Johnny Lawrence's dojo weren't done with each other. They had been taught into hating the other side with such a passion that they both wanted another fight. But they couldn't do it in the school again. No, they couldn't do that because the added security would mean the fight would end before it even gets started, and the legal consequences would be too high. Instead, they fought in the Larusso residence, beating each other to unconsciousness and now, looking at all of the property damage they caused and knowing how much it would cost to replace, are trying to pin the blame on my innocent students."

"No, no, no!" Daniel exclaimed, although sounding less and less sure of his plan of going to the cops as Kreese laid out this, although bullshit, very believable story before them. "But we can prove that that's not true!"

"Can you though?" Kreese laughed. "And let's say you decide to press charges and open an investigation against us. The amount of public attention in the Valley it is going to cause… how will that look for your dealership? I heard it was bad enough after the school fight. How will people react as they find out that the Larussos are involved in yet another fighting scandal? Will they really still want to buy cars from you? Because I can tell you what I would do if I was a customer. I would just walk down the road and settle for calm, peaceful, more competent Tom Cole's dealership."

Kreese and the Cobra Kai senseis smirked as they saw Daniel's face turn, if possible, even paler. They knew that they had gotten Daniel and Johnny on the ropes, pinned them with no possibility of doing anything but playing along with Cobra Kai's rules.

"Can I give you some advice?" Kreese remarked. "Don't involve the cops. That's not only a stupid move for you, your business and your students, but it's also disrespectful to your students. You claim to have faith that your kids can beat us in the All-Valley and yet when push comes to shove, they were absolutely nowhere near our level. Why don't you stop wasting time confronting us or going to the cops or whatever and spend that time actually training your students? We don't control whether our students fight yours before the All-Valley or not, but you have our word that not one of them would go to the cops. They have actual honor about them. When they win their fights, they stand tall. When they lose, they don't go running to mommy or daddy, or go to the cops. They merely train harder for next time. Maybe you should try that…"

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"What a fucking dickhead!"

Daniel vented his frustration to Johnny as the two of them left the dojo moments later, fuming. They couldn't believe that Kreese and his dojo were going to get off scot-free with their assault. But unfortunately Kreese was right. The implications of opening a legal case against Cobra Kai and Kreese would cause more harm than anything else.

"Yeah, but maybe he had sort of a point about some of it." Johnny slowly said, causing Daniel to look at him like he had just sprouted a third arm or something.

"What part? The part when he was talking about Cobra Kai's honor code? The part where he was threatening to put me out of business, the business that puts food on my family's table and clothes on their backs?"

"No, that part was seriously fucked. I'm talking about when he said our two dojos' students don't stand a chance against Cobra Kai." Johnny stated.

"Come on, Johnny! You can't seriously think an 8 on 6, surprise, no-holds barred ambush is a fair assessment of skill! They were fighting a serious numerical handicap for Christ's sake!" Daniel exclaimed. Johnny shook his head.

"Not all of them. Your daughter said it was just her fighting Tory, right? And she got her ass whooped by Tory!"

"Watch it, Johnny!" Daniel growled. Johnny raised his hands in surrender.

"Look, I mean no disrespect." Johnny started. "You push defense, defense, defense in your dojo, leaving them defenseless when it comes to offense."

"Defense wins championships." Daniel stated firmly. Johnny shrugged.

"Sure, but you also miss every shot you don't take. And right now, Miyagi-Do aren't good enough at offense to be able to take shots at Cobra Kai, and their defense isn't strong enough to hold back Cobra Kai's offense, which is why Cobra Kai is beating them so easily. Right now, the only reason that Miguel hasn't had the shit beaten out of him yet is that his offense is better than Cobra Kai's. Soon, if Cobra Kai keep improving at this rate, it won't be, and Eagle-Fang are going to have the exact opposite issue. We'll have offense but no defense, but neither our offense or defense will be good enough to stop Cobra Kai."

Daniel realised what Johnny was implying and his eyes widened in shock.

"Johnny, are you seriously suggesting…"

Johnny sighed and nodded.

"Look, I know you and I have had our issues in the past, but right now if we want any chance of beating Cobra Kai in the All-Valley, we're going to have to work together to convince our students to put aside their differences with each other to not only coexist, but to join together. We need to merge our dojos…"