CHAPTER 15

"Mr. Keene." Kreese greeted him. "What can I help you with?"

Robby didn't even hear Kreese's voice, as all of his senses seemed to have shut down in his fit of rage. His peripheral vision had vanished so the only person in his eyeline was the person who had broken Tory's hand, the person he was eager for revenge on. He charged towards her, Sensei Kim looking completely at ease despite the flames shooting from his ears and nostrils, and she had ever right to be. Even though she could've easily defended herself in a fight with Robby if it came down to it, she didn't even need to raise a hand as before Robby could reach her, a teenager stepped in his path.

Robby looked up and when he saw who it was, he took half a step back. To Marcos, this was just some random guy from their rival dojo, who had burst in looking for a fight. He didn't have context or anything, so his feelings towards Robby were really sour. But not more so than Robby, whose whole body was ablaze in his wrath, and that only increased as he found himself face to face with the guy who had obliterated his friend.

"Step back." Marcos growled quietly, puffing out his chest slightly. Standing at around 5'6, Robby wasn't the tallest guy in the world, and with Marcos built similarly muscularly but nearly 6 inches taller, there was a definite size difference between them. To be fair, it wasn't like that made much of a difference. Marcos could've been 4'10 and 100 pounds and it wouldn't have made him any less threatening, as the way that he had thrown around Miguel with such ease was emblazoned in Robby's mind. However, Robby forced himself not to get scared or pushed around by the other teenager, and he squared up to him, looking a lot more confident than he felt.

"Could tell you the same thing." Robby shot back. Marcos chuckled mirthlessly, his dislike of this boy growing with every passing second. This prick was wasting his and his senseis' time, as right now he was supposed to be training to become a better fighter, training to win the Taikai. But instead he was stuck once again squaring up to an insignificant bug that he wanted to squash as soon as possible.

"Oh yeah? You want to get knocked out just like your friend?" Marcos asked, readying himself to throw down, Robby instinctually doing the same. However, before either of them could throw a single punch, the doors of the dojo swung open once more, and in strided the entire cavalcade…

Johnny, Daniel, Miguel, Hawk, Sam and Tory were all there, the adults pointing their attention to Kreese and Kim, while the teenagers made a beeline towards Robby and Marcos. Sensing danger, Marcos could see the teenagers attempting to surround him, so he was forced to step away from Robby as he moved backwards to prevent that from happening. That still meant though that he was facing the prospects of a 5 on 1, a fight that would likely get his ass kicked.

"What is all of this?" Kreese snapped, beginning to lose his patience now. "Do I need to call the police and tell them that you are trespassing on my property? I'm sure, particularly for those of you on probation, that won't end well."

That certainly got Robby and Tory's attention, and it caused Johnny and Daniel to almost force their students to step back so that they were no longer converging on Marcos but instead standing side by side with their senseis, Marcos moving forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Cobra Kai senseis.

Two lines. One of Cobra Kai. One of Miyagi-Do. It was almost poetic, the way that they were all standing. So much animosity, so much hatred, 40 years of it to be exact. Some of them had been around from the very beginning. Some of them had joined the war in the past 2 years. One of them had joined earlier that very year. And one of them had joined that very day. But what Marcos realized from that very second, was that it didn't matter how long he had been a part of Cobra Kai for, and whether or not he had actively engaged in ambushes and assaults against their rivals. What mattered was that here and now, he was standing alongside Cobra Kai, and that made him the enemy. This wasn't just a rivalry anymore. This was a full-blown war, and with war came a variety of consequences. Consequences that in that moment, as Marcos stared at the 5 teenagers who he knew wanted nothing more than to attack him at that very moment, Marcos was willing to endure. He had no interest in quitting, nor did he have any interest in defecting to the other side. He was a Cobra Kai, and a loyal one at that, no matter how short a time he had been at the dojo for so far.

Most of the group were very familiar with one another already. All but Samantha of the Miyagi-Dos had been former Cobra Kais themselves at one point or another, so they knew well what this dojo was capable of. The only person who didn't know that, the only person they didn't recognize, was the third figure standing in the line of Cobra Kais. It was the first time any of them had really gotten a close look at him, to be able to tell who he was. He seemed to be about their age, but given the fact that none of them had ever seen him in West Valley High or around the Valley before, either he had just moved or he was from a very rich neighborhood. Given his disheveled look and the general aura he seemed to give off was not that of an overly wealthy person, they assumed it was the latter. It was clear Marcos' ethnicity was not in the United States, as his skin and hair color was closer to Miguel's than anyone else's, and the accent Robby had briefly heard when exchanging verbal blows a few minutes earlier was definitely foreign. That was all they could really gauge about him, other than the fact that he was a ruthlessly good fighter for his age, and clearly better than any of the Miyagi-Dos at that moment. Definitely not someone they wanted fighting against them.

"Look, we're not here for a fight." Daniel began, though he was almost immediately interrupted.

"Speak for yourself, Larusso." Johnny muttered under his breath, before turning to look at his former sensei and he scowled daggers at him. "You're dead. You hear me? You're dead."

Kreese chuckled and shook his head, trying to keep his face straight but unable to disguise the daggers that were sent into his chest. Johnny was his first champion, his favorite student ever, the student he had dedicated an entire decade of training to, and to then hear those words from the man's mouth severely stung.

"We're not going to allow you to keep infecting these kids with this virus." Daniel said, before turning his head to face Marcos. "Look, kid, I don't know what Kreese has told you to get you to join him. But I can tell you that almost every person here has been in Cobra Kai, and believe me, we've all seen the damage it can cause. You need to get out before it's too late, or you're going to get seriously hurt."

Marcos was about to open his mouth to respond to him, but Kreese's hand on his shoulder told him to stay quiet.

"Is that right?" Kreese replied, staring right at Daniel. "Because if memory serves, based on what we saw this morning, I think your students are at a greater risk of getting seriously hurt than mine. How's your head, Mr. Diaz?"

Miguel didn't respond, but by the way Miguel was holding himself up, Cobra Kai could tell that he was definitely not feeling his best.

"Now… unless you have something else to say, I suggest you leave my dojo right now, lest things become unpleasant." Kreese said. Daniel nodded.

"We did. We wanted to make a deal." Daniel told him. "The same as before. We settle this at the Taikai. 3 divisions… best of 3 divisions wins. If we win, Cobra Kai closes down for good."

Kreese raised an eyebrow.

"Why would I agree to that deal? You lost before, and your dojo didn't close down. You didn't keep your word. Why am I supposed to trust that you'll be honest this time around?"

"Actually, we did close down the dojo. We only reopened after Silver beat the shit out of me." Daniel replied. Kreese shook his head.

"Again, you haven't given us any proper incentive to agree to this deal. Who says we even want you to shut down? I could use some live punching targets for my champion before the Taikai."

Miguel, Sam, Robby, Hawk and Tory's faces flushed darker in anger as they all stared at Marcos, who seemed thoroughly unfazed by their presence.

"This time, you won't just have our word about the deal. We'll do it all legit. Lawyers, contracts, the whole thing." Johnny told him. Kreese cocked an eyebrow, intrigued.

"Really? You're that confident that you can win that you would bet all of that?" Kreese asked. Daniel nodded.

"We are. Best out of the 3 categories at the Taikai wins. Which means we'll also get to fight you, old man. See how confident you are then." Johnny challenged him. Kreese chuckled and gave it some thought. On one hand, he knew that he didn't have to wager anything. Right now, Cobra Kai had the upper hand. Unless Miyagi-Do moved as a pack every time they traveled anywhere, their would all be succept to an attack from Cobra Kai's champion. Cobra Kai had the best fighter in the Valley, and both sides knew it. Kreese didn't need some tournament to prove that fact. But on the other hand, the chance to wipe Miyagi-Do off the map once and for all… the temptation was just too much to refuse.

Eventually, Kreese nodded and held out a hand to Johnny.

"You have yourself a deal." Kreese replied, and Johnny in turn shook his hand, trying to crush it as he did, Kreese not showing any signs of being in pain though. "You can draw up the paperwork, and then send it to us. We'll look it over and sign it. May the best team win."

"Oh, we will." Daniel replied, a lot more confidently than he felt. As the four adults stared down at one another, the 6 teenagers did the same. Despite being 5 to 1, Marcos was seemingly more confident than any of the Miyagi-Dos. He held himself tall and even smirked at them. He wasn't afraid of them at all. They were nothing compared to him. At the Taikai, he was going to humiliate them.

Eventually, Daniel and Johnny turned away, and they ordered their Miyagi-Dos to leave. One by one, they all filed out of the Cobra Kai dojo, Robby being the last one to leave. He wanted to stay. He wanted to fight. But he didn't have much choice in the matter, as he was practically dragged out by Tory, Johnny and Miguel, his last sight of Kim, Kreese and Marcos being the two men grinning faintly at them, but Kim's expression not matching theirs. In fact, she looked furious…

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"Are you crazy?!" Kim yelled at Kreese later that night, after everyone had left. Marcos had finally gone home, as he knew his dad would be returning home from work soon, and the man always expected Marcos to have cooked them a meal by the time he came home. It left just the two Cobra Kai senseis in the dojo, and while one of them was elated about the deal that had just been made, the other was fuming.

"Excuse me?" Kreese asked.

"Can't you see what's going on?! This is just history repeating itself. They're distracting you, John. Distracting you from your dojo again, from your students again. And once again, it's going to cost you."

Kreese shook his head confidently.

"No." He replied. "It isn't the same. This time, it's different to all of the other times."

"Oh yeah? How's that?" Kim questioned. Kreese smiled.

"For a start, that champion we have now… he's special. He has a hunger to win unlike anyone Cobra Kai has ever coached. He knows what it truly means to struggle, and he sees Cobra Kai and winning the Taikai as his only chance of succeeding in life. That means he's going to fight tooth and nail for us."

"That's great, but one student isn't enough, Sensei!" Kim snapped. "You don't even have a female champion, let alone anything else! Ms. Nichols is not coming back, nor should we allow her to, so we have nobody to compete with in that division. Then in the Senseis' division, your… age also puts you at a huge disadvantage."

Kreese pulled out a cigar from the box on his desk and sighed contentedly. He knew deep down that this time, things were different. This wasn't history repeating itself. This was a whole new chapter being written in history, one where Cobra Kai would reign victorious, there was no doubt about that.

"Relax, Sensei Kim. We're not going to lose." Kreese replied. Kim nodded.

"I know you won't. Because I won't let our students lose. I'm going to go extra hard on them, weed out the weak from the strong once and for all. It will be like nothing they've ever felt before, and only champions will survive."

Kreese grinned and nodded at her.

"That sounds great, Sensei." He replied. "The Taikai is as good as ours…"