CHAPTER 101

As Marcos hit the dirt, he was in too much pain to even roll over onto his back, to see who had assaulted him from behind. Whoever had assaulted him had knocked him perfectly on his battered back of the head, causing shock waves of pain to rip through his system.

After a while, Marcos forced himself to roll onto his back to survey the scene going on above him. Just like him, Robby was still laying on the ground, without the energy to stand. This left only one other person in the center of the ring: the person who had run in to take out Marcos. It was none other than Tory Nichols herself, misinterpreting the way that Marcos had dragged Robby to his feet and extended a hand to him. She thought it was an act of violence, so she had come rushing in to save her boyfriend from the threats that Marcos had made earlier, unknowing of Marcos' internal change of heart.

It didn't take long though for, after Tory had broken the deadlock between the two sides, someone else to get involved. Sarah had watched Marcos beat Robby and for a moment, she too was scared that Marcos was about to do some serious harm to him after the fight was over. However, her fears were quietened when she saw the look in his eyes. Fighting Robby… it was almost like the Marcos of old had returned. He had been reminded of what he loved, something that even if everything and everyone in his life turned his back on him, he would always have: his love for fighting. In a weird way, fighting to the death with Robby had reminded him of just how incredible this sport really was, as well as just how dispensable Marcos was in the grand scheme of things in this world. All of it had been enough to bring the spark back to his eyes ever so slightly, even if it was still hidden behind a wall of pain.

It warmed Sarah's entire body to see this sudden change of heart from Marcos, his return from a place of almost psychopathy, but she didn't get to see this for long. As she watched Marcos extend his hand to his opponent, Sarah heard a cry coming from a Miyagi-Do student across the circle from her, and Sarah's heart dropped. She could already see what was about to happen, could already see the misunderstanding beginning to form, but she wasn't quick enough to react to stop it. Before she could react, Tory had sprinted into the center of the ring, directly towards Marcos and Robby.

Initially, Sarah figured that all Tory was going to do was pull Robby out of the way, or stand between the two boys. However, what she ended up watching filled her entire body with outrage. Instead of moving towards her boyfriend and trying to protect him, Tory instead decided to attack Marcos, hitting him hard to the back of the head, the area of his body that was already injured from the fight. Seeing this happen, Sarah immediately grew enraged, especially as she saw Marcos hit the ground, unmoving.

"HEY!" Sarah shouted, leaving her place in the circle and sprinting for the Miyagi-Do student, tackling her to the ground and shoving her away from Marcos. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOI-"

Sarah never even got to finish her sentence. Before she could, she felt herself also being blindsided to the back of her head, just like her ex-boyfriend had a few moments earlier. Thankfully, as Sarah hadn't fought the long fight that Marcos had, the blow wasn't enough to do anything more than cause her to stumble forwards and fall over for a second, before leaping back up to her feet and spinning to face her assailant. It was Miyagi-Dos longest standing next generation student, daughter of the two time All-Valley champion, Samantha Larusso.

"You mess with her? You mess with me too." Sam snapped, getting into a fighting stance, Sarah instantly doing the same, and Tory leaping to her feet to create a 2 on 1 situation for the Cobra. However, before anyone could do anything, a voice came from behind Samantha.

"Don't mind if I do, princess." The voice replied. As Sam turned around, she was met with a vicious boot to the face by the physically largest guy at the canyon that night: Shawn Payne. The ruthless Cobra didn't hesitate to unleash a monstrous front kick to Sam's unguarded face, the impact alone knocking her to the ground and severely dazing her for a while.

From there, it became a chaotic game of dominos. Miguel joined in. Kenny then joined in. At which point Hawk joined in. Then came Kyler. Then came Demetri. Before they knew it, every single Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai in the canyon that night was involved in a massive, all-out brawl. Well, apart from Marcos and Robby that was, as both teenagers still lay on the ground, trying to gather the strength to get up but failing…

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As various matchups began to form during the brawl, both 1 on 1s and unevenly numbered fights, something glaringly obvious was beginning to form. It was something all of them could have probably predicted. Something that their senseis definitely could have, as it had been the very reason Cobra Kai had gone looking for new students such as Marcos and Sarah anyways. Apart from their top 2 or 3 students, Cobra Kai were simply incapable of competing with the rest of Miyagi-Do.

This issue was emphasized even further with Marcos out of commission, Sarah being teamed up on by both Sam and Tory and Shawn being occupied by fighting Miguel. This left Kenny to fight Hawk, a matchup he was never realistically winning. Demetri was forced to fight Kyler, a matchup that was equally one-sided in the Miyagi-Do's favor. Even Devon was putting up a valiant fight against Piper, despite the Cobra being older and larger than her opponent.

The increasingly familiar sounds of a brawl at full-speed began to fill the air. Sickening cracks could be heard as punches and kicks found their target. Cries of anger and pain pierced the eardrums of the entire canyon. And the feeling of desperation and need for retaliation was so palpable in the air that it could have been cut with a knife.

It was a combination of all of these things that roused Marcos from his semi-conscious, beaten down state. Despite the aching that wracked his entire body, and the feeling of being unable to move from the neck down, Marcos managed to turn his head to survey the entire scene. It didn't look good for the dojo. That was for sure. They were getting absolutely annihilated by their opponents, even their best fighters struggling as they were forced into fighting 2 on 1s or fighting All-Valley champions. As he watched his friends all being ruthlessly beaten down by the Miyagi-Dos, Marcos tried to force himself to his feet so he could help them, but he couldn't. He just couldn't. Physically, his body didn't possess the strength to stand up, even with the boost of adrenaline pumping through his system. He felt helpless as he lay on the ground, unable to help, a feeling that quickly turned to desperation as his eyes fell upon the situation his ex-girlfriend was in.

Sarah was putting up a strong fight, but was ultimately getting demolished by the combined efforts of both Sam and Tory. She had been already beaten to her knees, and Marcos could see that the two Miyagi-Dos had no plans on stopping anytime soon. With every time Sarah tried to hit back at them, it only encouraged the Miyagi-Dos to unleash another furious combination that knocked Sarah right back down to the ground.

Marcos watched her for a while, seeing the way that each time, standing back up to face her 2 opponents got harder and harder, and he knew that he needed to do something. But what? He couldn't even fucking move, his head feeling like it was about to split in two it was in so much pain. If he tried to stand, he knew that he'd pass out completely, as he was hanging on to mere threads of consciousness right now.

It was what happened then that jolted Marcos awake a little more. His squinting eyes watched as Tory viciously kicked Sarah to the cheek, sending her crashing down to the ground, barely able to regain her feet, a large cut opening on the side of her face. It wasn't long now before Sarah was in the exact same predicament as her ex-boyfriend, and by the looks of things, it was going to be sooner than they could've expected. Rather than leaving Sarah alone, knowing that the Cobra Kai had been beaten, Tory and Sam continued to focus their attention on her. Tory grabbed Sarah by her honey-blonde hair, yanking her upright, ignoring the cry of pain emitted by the teenager. Tory then grabbed Sarah by her arms, pinning them behind her back so the Cobra was thoroughly defenseless as she was pushed before Sam.

"Come on, Larusso. Finish her!" Tory snapped. Curling her hands into a fist, Sam was about to oblige, but just before she did, she hesitated. She looked at how beaten down Sarah was already, and internally debated whether she needed to hit her anymore.

Marcos watched all of this unfold from a distance, now knowing more than ever that he needed to intervene in some way. He saw Tory pin Sarah's arms behind her back and Sam stand in front of the Cobra, readying to whale on her some more. Marcos couldn't let them do that to Sarah, but in his current predicament, what exactly could he do? He could feel the feeling beginning to return to his legs and arms, but not nearly fast enough. Not nearly enough for him to be able to stand up and fight anytime soon. There was, however, one other option. The nuclear option…

As Marcos lay on his back, he was all too aware of a cold piece of steel, pressing against his tailbone, still tucked into the back of his pants underneath his shirt. He needed to intervene in some way and right now, this was physically the only way he possibly could. A last resort, Marcos prayed that he didn't need to use it, but it was feeling increasingly likely that he was going to have to.

Meanwhile, Sam continued to hesitate in front of Sarah, reluctant to beat down on her any more than she already had. However, a plethora of thoughts ran through her brain as she stared down at the Cobra Kai. She felt herself in the midst of PTSD flashbacks. She was reminded of all of the trauma Tory had put her through in the past, trauma that she could have maybe avoided to some extent if she had eliminated the threat earlier. She was reminded of the way Tory had consumed every dream, every moment of the day. How Sam had been scared to even leave her house and turn a corner, fearful that Tory was lying in wait and preparing to pounce. She remembered the way her heart stopped both times she watched Tory pull out a weapon on her, with the clear intent to seriously maim her or worse.

Although the Miyagi-Do inside Sam yelled at her to forgive, there was a small part of her that still harbored all of these feelings. They weren't even directed towards Tory - as the two girls had grown to respect each other over time - but they had all come rushing back in a second upon standing face to face with Sarah. She was secretly terrified that if this threat was left unchecked, Sarah would grow to traumatise her or one of the other innocent teenagers in the Valley in the same way that Tory had.

It was an internal debate, a battle raging in Sam's mind, whether she should just turn around or throw a couple more points to better subdue the Cobra's threat. She couldn't decide what to do, both sides of her mind - the aggressive Johnny's student side and the passive Daniel's student side - fighting valiantly against one another. It reached a stalemate, with Sam's hand curled into a fist but not yet raining down on Sarah.

That might've been how things looked from Sam's perspective, but from a person further away, seeing Sam's curled fist raise into the air was enough to send them into battle stations. Reaching behind his back to pull out the deathly cold handgun, two gunshots echoed into the night.

BANG! BANG!