CHAPTER 45

"Ah, Mr. and Mrs. Larusso. Finally! I was beginning to suspect that you would never arrive." Silver grinned at them cheerfully, a look that Daniel and Amanda didn't reciprocate. Both of them were shaken and in shock at seeing the boy they had hosted countless times standing beside a man who, if they had their way, would be behind bars right now.

"What are you doing here, Silver?! And what the hell are you doing with Miguel?!" Daniel snapped. Silver chuckled and raised his hands in surrender.

"Wow, easy Danny boy. I'm not here for a fight. I'm merely here to buy my new champion a set of wheels." Silver replied. Daniel and Amanda's eyes widened as they turned towards the teenager.

"Miguel… you… you joined Cobra Kai?" Amanda stammered, in shock. Miguel didn't say anything, and merely nodded. He was silently annoyed at Silver for bringing him here. He wasn't some fool. He knew that Silver had brought him here to flaunt to the Larussos the fact that Cobra Kai had recruited him. It was a power move that Silver was doing to get into the heads of his rivals, and Miguel wasn't exactly a fan. During the past 6 months, the Larussos had been really good to him, Mr. Larusso as a sensei and Amanda as just a chilled out person that he could talk to. He did care about them so really didn't want to hurt them. That being said though, Miguel knew that part of his job at Cobra Kai was to be their poster boy, and so he needed to go along with it when Silver paraded him around like his prized show pony.

A long silence descended upon them as Daniel and Amanda truly took in the unexpected sight in front of them. Silver, with his arm draped around Miguel's shoulder's… it was unimaginable, and quite possibly the last thing Miyagi-Do and Eagle-Fang needed right now.

"Miguel, what are you doing?! Cobra Kai?! Seriously?! Do you not remember what they did to you, did to all of us?!"

"Hmmm… please correct me if I'm remembering this wrong, but Miguel, that big injury you were inflicted with last year… was it a Cobra Kai who did that to you?" Silver asked, passively but with the clear intention to get deeper under Daniel's skin. "Or was it a Miyagi-Do?"

Daniel's face flashed with fury as he took a step towards the elderly man.

"Hey, you stay out of this, okay?!" Daniel growled, his fists balled up in fury, before turning back to Miguel.

"Look, Mr. Larusso, I, uh… I'm really sorry. I know this must come as quite a shock." Miguel murmured. "I'm in Cobra Kai, and that's not changing anytime soon. But I'm still me."

"No, you're the Cobra Kai bully who was dating my daughter a year and a half ago!" Daniel exclaimed. "What happened to growing up?! What happened to being better than them?"

It was Miguel's turn to be filled with anger. Who the hell did Mr. Larusso think he was to be saying this?! Who was he to be staring down at Cobra Kai like they were so inferior, when Miguel had been in Miyagi-Do long enough to know that their way was just as far from perfect as Cobra Kai was?!

"I have grown up!" Miguel snapped. "Grown up enough to know that what I need right now is in Cobra Kai, no matter what drama is going on between the dojos."

"Really? What you need is to be used again in this stupid war?! Made into a pawn, a soldier, in this man's psychopathic plans to wipe out Miyagi-Do once and for all?!"

"Oh, my God! Have you actually had a conversation with him to know that that's what he wants? Or are you just assuming that him and I are the villains, just because of the dojo we're a part of?!"

"Oh, so you're telling me that you don't think he's using you and is about to wage a war?!" Daniel snapped, almost laughing in disbelief. Miguel shook his head.

"No, I'm saying that I'm old enough and mature enough to not be blindly manipulated into some ruthless soldier living to do his bidding." Miguel responded hotly. "And whether or not Sensei plans to go to war… quite frankly, I don't care to find out. If I ever do, that's when I'll be the first to quit. But right now, Sensei says he isn't, and with everything I'm being offered to stay here, I'm not about to go digging deeper."

Daniel shook his head, in complete disbelief at what he was witnessing. He forced every ounce of him to calm down, as he knew that continuing to yell would only push Miguel further towards the dark side.

"Look, Miguel, please listen to me." He continued in a much calmer, softer tone, almost begging Miguel to hear him. "Silver's manipulating you. Just like he played me into joining."

"No… no, that's not true." Miguel replied.

"Miguel, please, trust me. I know how this goes. You and I… we have a lot in common." Daniel stated. "I remember being tempted by Silver. Being told and shown that I'd be able to reach new physical heights. It's not worth it."

Miguel sighed as he looked at his ex-girlfriend's father, visible pain in his eyes as he watched Miguel in the arms of the enemy.

"Well I guess that's where you and I are different." Miguel murmured. "Because if I wanted to reach new physical heights, I'd still be in Mexico with my dad right now. I'm in Cobra Kai because I genuinely want… need to be there. Not because I'm being lured like some fish in the koi pond."

"I… I can't believe this." Daniel snapped, feeling fury rise again inside him, his shock melting like a glacier and instead joining the colossal pool of fury that said in the pit of his stomach.

"Mr. Larusso, I'm really sorry I didn't tell you earlier." Miguel mumbled. Daniel shook his head.

"No, I can't believe I ever let my daughter date someone like you." Daniel snarled, trying to verbally stab at Miguel, make him feel a fraction of the pain that he was feeling right now. Mr. Miyagi was right… he had always been hotheaded, but this time, in his eyes, it was for good reason.

"Daniel!" Amanda exclaimed, even her thinking the insult was way too far to be directing at a teenager.

"You know, if I could say something in the defence of my dojo?" Silver said, surprisingly remaining extremely calm during all of this. "You talk about how bad Cobra Kai is, but it wasn't Cobra Kai who did thousands of dollars worth of damage to my limited edition Ferrari last night. It was done by none other than your champion in Miyagi-Do."

Amanda and Daniel looked at each other, confused.

"What is he talking about?" Amanda asked, at a complete loss and feeling totally out of the loop as these karate titans all stared at each other.

"Nothing. He's a liar!" Daniel snapped. "He was probably drunk and wrapped it around a tree and is trying to use it to fuel his students' hatred of Miyagi-Do."

"He's not lying." Miguel's much quieter voice stated. "Ask Hawk what happened last night."

"Miguel, I honestly can't believe you would do this." Daniel snapped. "You're picking their side over ours."

"For the last time, I'm not picking either side!" Miguel growled, getting seriously annoyed now, but Silver's hand on his shoulder prevented him from doing anything.

"Okay, okay, well we came here to be treated as customers, not as enemies. We came here to buy a car…"

"I'm not selling you a fucking car, Silver!" Daniel spat. Silver nodded.

"Yeah, I figured as much. Shame too. I would've given you such an amazing offer. Oh well. I guess we'll have to look for business elsewhere." Silver remarked, before turning to his student and nodding at him. "Come on, Miguel. Let's go…"

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

"WAKE UP! GET UP! GET UP! GET UP!"

As Hawk's eyes slowly opened at the sudden intrusion of noise, he immediately loud out an audible gasp of pain. His head was POUNDING, like he had just been thrown on stage for a never-ending rock concert. He could almost hear his thoughts as his head rattled. He had been so drunk the night before and he was now feeling the brunt of the hangover the next morning. Slowly getting up, Hawk cursed whatever had caused him to get this drunk the night before. At the moment, he had forgotten about everything that had happened as he was in the midst of dealing with the killer hangover. Between fighting the urge to vomit and pass out from the headache, Hawk was in really bad shape, and the last thing he needed to hear was the screaming voice of Demetri waking him up.

"Ah. Dude. What the hell?" Hawk grumbled as he slowly stumbled to his feet, annoyed at Demetri waking him up. As Hawk looked around the room, he realised that he wasn't in his own room, but seemed to be in Demetri's familiar bedroom. "Wait… how did I get here?"

"You don't remember?" Demetri asked, surprised. "I had to carry your drunk ass home after the party last night. Hawk looked at him, confused.

"Party? What pa-a-a…" Hawk abruptly as all of a sudden, the events of the night before came screaming back to him. Seeing Miguel in Cobra Kai, getting drunk off his ass, confronting Miguel about his transfer. And then the fight…

Hawk put his head in his hands as he remembered everything that had happened, and he shook his head.

"Oh, my God." Hawk groaned into his hands. "How could you let me get so drunk?!"

"Me? You're blaming me?!" Demetri exclaimed. "I'm not the one who drank enough to intoxicate a grizzly bear and then decided to start a war with Cobra Kai!"

"I'm not fucking blaming you, dude!" Hawk snapped, before wincing as his ears rang at the loud sound. "Wait… you're blaming me for starting a war with Cobra Kai?! I'm not the one who decided to go full sith and join Cobra Kai like an absolute fool."

Demetri narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Look, while I don't disagree that Miguel's being an absolute idiot, you're the one who started a fight! And you know what happened after you and Miguel's confrontation? He got into it with Robby and beat the living shit out of him."

"Good. He deserves it." Hawk snapped, thinking back to the brutal scalping of his head that Robby had masterminded. His hatred for Miguel and Robby was around about in the same place at this point in time, but the difference was that only one of those two was a direct threat to him and his friends.

Demetri laughed mirthlessly and shook his head.

"No, no, no. Trust me, dude. Nobody deserves what Miguel gave Robby. It was absolutely savage. Punched and kicked him a ton, then choked him until Robby was basically out. Came pretty close to killing him."

Hawk's eyes widened slightly in alarm as he took this in.

"Wait… what?"

Demetri nodded gravely.

"Yeah. I've never seen Miguel fight like that before. Never seen anyone fight like that before to be honest. It was insane."

"Holy shit." Hawk murmured quietly in disbelief.

"Yeah, and after what you did to Miguel last night, now that he's done going after Eagle-Fang, which dojo do you think he's going to target next?! How could you be so stupid to start a war with Cobra Kai?! They're going to go after us now!"

As Hawk awoke more and more and took in the severity of the situation, his hangover faded away. More accurately, he took it and dumped it the fuck out his system. He didn't need that right now. He needed to think like the leader of Miyagi-Do, and what he should do to help protect his friends and the dojo. He didn't care who Cobra Kai were - his former friends or not. Hawk finally remembered everything that happened last night and not only did he feel fury towards Miguel, but he felt these inexplicable feelings… that he was going to do whatever it took to keep Miyagi-Do safe, no matter what.

"Demetri, relax. Miguel and Cobra Kai are not going to come after you, okay? Just relax!" Hawk declared. Demetri scowled at him.

"Did you seriously not hear what I just said?!" Demetri exclaimed. Hawk nodded.

"I hear you. And now you hear me. Miguel is not doing anything to you or any member of Miyagi-Do. I swear."

"How? How'd you know that?" Demetri snapped. Hawk took a deep breath, looking down.

"Because I'm going to put an end to all of this once and for all…"