CHAPTER 61
"Wait… so Robby and Hawk did this to you?" Kenny asked Miguel after class as the Cobras all stood around and hung out. Very aware of all of the other Cobras lusting for revenge, Miguel shrugged it off, looking down so the other Cobras couldn't see his very banged up face.
"It was nothing. Don't worry about it." Miguel murmured as he continued to pack up his bag.
"No! No, it wasn't! Miyagi-Do struck down one of our own! We need to strike back and we need to strike back harder!" Shawn exclaimed. Miguel groaned in annoyance as he listened to the shouts and cries of agreements coming from the rest of the group. It had been one training session and he already knew that Shawn was going to be a pain in the ass when it came to maintaining order amongst the Cobra Kais. Miguel slowly stood up and faced Shawn.
"Hey, hey, you've been here for what? One day? Calm the fuck down. We're not retaliating." Miguel demanded quietly. Shawn wasn't faced by his low growl, and stood face to face to him, not at all unnerved.
"Kenny's told me about you, you know?" Shawn remarked. "I heard you were in both Miyagi-Do and Eagle-Fang karate."
Miguel nodded.
"I was. But I'm here now. And around here, I call the shots." Miguel replied. Shawn raised an eyebrow.
"Do you? Because I don't know about everyone else, but I personally think that someone who either dated or was friends with every single person in both dojos isn't fit to be leader."
Once again, echoes of approval rang around the dojo as Miguel felt more and more of his power within the dojo slipping away from him. His heart rate quickened slightly, but he forced himself to remain calm and continued to stand face to face with Shawn as the two squared up to one another.
"You are NOT going near them. Do you understand?" Miguel quietly growled.
"And what are you going to do about it?" Shawn responded hotly. At this moment, Miguel paused for a moment. An easy option was to get into another scrap with Shawn, right here right now. However, with his mind as fucked as it was, he knew that it would probably have the same outcome as the first fight and he couldn't risk losing again as it would fully solidify Shawn's place as the new leader. And God only knows what would happen if he was. So Miguel had to go with the second, much less ideal option.
"Sensei Silver told all of us that we're to leave Miyagi-Do alone. You try and go after them and I'll let him know what you're planning."
Instantaneously, Miguel felt even more of the respect his teammates used to have for him slipping away. It might have managed to hold back Shawn, but it had sacrificed even more of his power over the dojo.
"You'd snitch on me?" Shawn sneered at him. Miguel scowled deeply at him, already loathing the new recruit.
"I'll do what I have to." Miguel replied calmly. Shawn's hands curled into fists and for a moment, Miguel genuinely thought that he was going to attack him. However, after a while, Shawn slowly turned away and faced the rest of the group.
"Alright guys, let's go hit up the mall, grab a bite to eat or something." He told them. They all left together moments later, leaving Miguel the only person left in the dojo and when the door slammed shut behind them, Miguel put his head in his hands. This was not good news at all. All of these new recruits were naturally more aggressive than anyone they had had in the dojo in the past, and all Shawn was doing was riling them up. Miguel had managed to subdue them so far but if Shawn managed to truly take control, he could cause some serious damage to some innocent people. They weren't going to stop at just getting revenge on Robby and Hawk. Miguel knew that. They'd go after others. Innocent others. Demetri. Tory. Sam…
Miguel shuddered at the mere thought, when suddenly a voice spoke out from behind him.
"Don't worry about them." Miguel heard Sensei Silver say to him, and Miguel slowly turned around to face the man as he stepped out of the office. "They might be following Shawn now, but they're like sheep. All that's needed is a bigger dog to herd them back in the right direction."
Miguel nodded.
"Didn't help though that I lost to him today." Miguel murmured. Silver nodded, looking at Miguel curiously.
"Yeah, what happened, by the way?" Silver asked. "I mean you had complete control over the fight. You needed only 1 more point to win and you slipped. What happened?"
Miguel wasn't about to tell Silver all of the details of the therapy session with Vanessa and how her words had come back to bite him, so he decided to make up a reason.
"I, uh… I guess I was just distracted with what happened last night." Miguel replied. "Sorry for losing."
Silver shrugged.
"Don't sweat it. I'm sure you'll get your win against him next time." Silver told him. "My bigger concern is what happened to you last night."
Miguel sighed.
"Yeah, um, look sensei…"
"I know that you don't want to bring others into it and escalate it into a war. I respect that." Silver stated. "But my job as your sensei wouldn't be complete if I wasn't able to teach you how to defend yourself against them next time. Put your bag down. This will only take a minute."
Miguel did so and stepped back onto the mat, facing his sensei.
"Now…" Silver began. "When fighting on the street, especially against good fighters, and even more so in a numbers handicap situation, what's the aim of the fight?"
"To win?" Miguel answered, unsure. Silver shook his head.
"No, guess again." He replied.
"Uh… to survive?" Miguel asked. Silver smiled and nodded.
"Bingo." He responded. "Over the years, I have developed a system of intensive short-term training for situations just like this. It comes in two parts and it has three rules. I call it Quick Silver."
Miguel couldn't help but chuckle slightly at the name.
"That's good." Miguel remarked, the ghost of a smile on his lips. Silver smirked.
"You like that, huh?" He grinned. "Rule number 1: a man can't stand, he can't fight…"
Half an hour later, Miguel left the dojo. However, the look on his face was no longer filled with the eagerness to learn, or anger at Robby, or any of the other feelings that he had felt just half an hour ago. Instead, his eyes were wide, horrified. What in the name of Hell have I just learned?!
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"Oooh… oooh… can we get ice cream?!"
As Tory held her younger brother's hand as they walked down the street, the boy was like a pinball. He had always been an energetic child, made even more so that afternoon. Tory had just picked him up from a friend's house and the boy was still ramped up from the excitement of spending the day with his friends. Tory felt like her arm was about to be yanked out of its socket as he pulled her along the road like a dog on its walk, getting distracted by all of the super cool shops around them. Of course, they didn't go into any of them. What was the point, given that they couldn't afford any of the stuff inside. But Brandon didn't know that, so he eagerly pressed his nose up against the glass and he looked at all of the restaurants, cafes and shops that they passed on their way home. It was 5 pm now and the sun was starting to set, so Tory knew that they needed to get home soon so she could start prepping dinner for the family.
At that moment, Tory looked down and realised that her shoelaces were untied.
"Stay here." She told Brandon, before bending down to tie them again. It took nearly 3 minutes to retie them as they were really old shoes and so the laces were on their last legs, but she eventually managed to get it done. However, when she stood back up, her heart stopped. Brandon had run off! He was gone…
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"Brandon! Brandon! BRANDON!"
Tory shouted down the street, desperately looking for her brother. He couldn't have gotten that far, but as Tory looked into all of the shops that her brother had been eyeing, she realized that he wasn't in any of them. She could feel panic begin to set in and her hands begin to tremble. She had lost her brother. Where the hell was he?!
Quickly, Tory took out her phone and dialed Robby's number, calling him and begging him to come look for her brother. Of course, within minutes, the teenager showed up to help with the search. They quickly contacted the local police too to let them know what was going on, and so the police had been told to keep their eyes peeled too. All Tory and Robby could do was walk up and down the street, calling out Brandon's name and praying that he'd hear their call and come running. He didn't unfortunately, and the couple found themselves searching long into the evening, and the sun had already completely set when Robby spoke up. He had a thought. A horrible one, but one that was weighing on his mind.
"Hey, um… I know this sounds horrible, but um… you don't think Cobra Kai did this, do you?" Robby asked her. Tory turned to him, panicked tears threatening to spill over her eyes, but being disguised as she glared at him.
"Abduct a kid? No way they actually did that." Tory shrugged off the question, more for her own sanity than anything else. Because if someone had taken Brandon… she didn't know what she would do to the entire Valley in revenge. "Besides, what reason would they have to do that?"
Robby looked down at the ground in shame. He hadn't told Tory about the events of the previous night with Miguel and Hawk yet. He had only finished the 'training' with Johnny a couple of hours ago so this was his first time seeing Tory all day.
"I, uh… I have something to tell you." Robby murmured, and the couple slowed to a halt as Robby turned to his girlfriend.
Robby confessed to everything. He told her all about his and Hawk's team-up, how they had tracked Miguel to Golf-n-Stuff, how they had fought in the bathroom and how the fight had ended. And by the end, Tory stared at him with an unreadable expression on her face.
"Look, however much I might want to slap you in the face for starting a war with Cobra Kai…" Tory began, her voice dripping with rage. "Right now, I have my brother to find. So if you could just help me do that, that would be wonderful…"