CHAPTER 66
"Alright, class. Well done. Great work today. See you all next week." Silver drawled, almost bored. Well, maybe because he was bored. Super bored. There was nothing more mind-numbingly, bone-crunchingly boring than teaching a bunch of beginners Cobra Kai. A bunch of fat, scrawny, sweaty teenagers who were a stain on the great institution that was Cobra Kai. In an ideal world, these useless students would be kicked to the curb immediately. However, he knew that they needed the cash influx they brought in. He wasn't charging any of Barnes' recruits - in fact, he was paying them minimal amounts from his own pocket - so they needed to earn some money somehow. And that meant keeping these shitheads training in the dojo.
And the shitheads were loving it. Because at the end of the day, Cobra Kai was Cobra Kai, no matter how bad the students were. It was badass. It was physically gruelling. It would eventually make even the weakest kid there into a champion, and the students knew that so they all hung onto Silver's every word. That was, all but one student, who remained very unhappy in the dojo: Stingray. Stingray was furious. He was humiliated. He was embarrassed. He shouldn't be here, in this class, with all of the new students. He was a Cobra and had been for a year now. He deserved to be in the advanced class, with his friends and the other students his level. He felt that he was better than these beginners. He didn't belong here.
After yet another boring, shitty training session, Stingray decided to take action. If Sensei Silver wasn't going to promote him to the advanced group automatically after seeing how much better he was than the rest of the group, then he needed to take things into his own hands. He needed to convince Silver to let him into the big boys' club. So after training was over and Silver had walked back into his office, Stingray eventually decided to go and talk to him.
Stingray walked over to the office and as he got closer, he heard voices coming from inside. It was Sensei Silver and Sensei Barnes, there was no doubt about that. They were talking quietly about something, but suspiciously, they immediately silenced themselves as they heard Stingray knock on the door.
"What do you want?" Silver grumbled as he saw Stingray enter the room. Stingray took a deep breath. This was it. This was his chance to move to the advanced group.
"I, um… I, uh… I, um…" Stingray stammered, suddenly unnerved by the two senseis staring impatiently at him.
"What are you, a retard? Hurry up and spit it out." Barnes snapped. Stingray calmed himself enough to nod and gather himself.
"I, um… I want to request to move up to the advanced group, sensei." Stingray stated. For a moment, there was dead silence in the office. Stingray's pounding heart was the only audible sound as Silver and Barnes took in what their student had just asked them. The two senseis looked at each other and all of a sudden, they burst out into fits of hysterics. Peals of raucous laughter echoed around the room, stabbing Stingray right in the heart.
"You… you want to join the advanced group?" Silver spluttered through his crying laughter. Stingray forced himself to not be off put by their initial reaction.
"Yes, sensei. I do. I, um… I believe that I'm better than everyone else in this class." Stingray stated.
"You're also fatter than everyone else in this class." Silver responded, causing Stingray to blush furiously, his humiliation growing.
"I, um… I believe that I can be a valuable member of the advanced group. I've been training for a long time and I think that I'd be a good addition to the group." He said. Silver shook his head.
"Look, Chubs…" Barnes started.
"Oh, it's uh… it's Stingray actually." Stingray stammered. Barnes raised an eyebrow and stood up, standing over Stingray and flexing his large frame menacingly. Stingray gulped in fear.
"What did you say to me?" Barnes snapped. Stingray didn't respond and Barnes nodded. "That's what I thought, Chubs."
Barnes scowled daggers at him for a moment, disgusted at the pile of piss they had been forced to let into the dojo to earn them money.
"Anyways, as I was saying, you could be better than half the members of the advanced group and we wouldn't move you up, purely for the reason of we don't want our students to be terrified thinking there's an earthquake occurring every time you enter the room!"
At the second comment, Silver and Barnes went back to laughing hysterically at Stingray, who was feeling more and more crushed as seconds wore on. These men were his idols, his heroes, and this was how they were treating him?
"Let me get something straight." Barnes said to him. "You are not Cobra Kai. You are the opposite to everything Cobra Kai stands for. You're a fat, middle-aged man who has absolutely no life that he needs to join a kids' karate class. Now get out of my office. The smell of you is stinking up our office."
Stingray didn't need any more motivation to turn around and run out of the dojo, leaving the cackling senseis behind him. As the door slammed shut behind him, Stingray slumped against the wall, a tear rolling down his cheek. His heart had well and truly been shattered, ripped out of his chest and mercilessly stomped on. He had been betrayed by the people he loved and trusted most. The people he thought had his best interests at heart. Stingray didn't know what was going to happen next, but he knew one thing for sure: he didn't want to be in Cobra Kai anymore.
Stingray arrived home - well, at his sister's home - around half an hour later, but when he arrived, he noticed a peculiar car on his driveway. An unfamiliar one, an unlikely occurrence in such a small neighborhood. So Stingray approached closer and when he saw who it was, his devastation and misery disappeared, being replaced by a combination of anger and confusion. He saw two familiar men standing opposite him.
"What the hell are you doing here?!"
"Look, Raymond, there's no need to get angry. We just want to talk to you." Daniel stated.
"It's not Raymond. It's Stingray." Stingray snapped. Daniel nodded, holding back the eye roll.
"Okay, St-stingray." Daniel said, almost forcing the ridiculous nickname through his lips. "Could we please just have a few minutes of your time? Just like 5 minutes, then you don't have to see us again."
Stingray scowled at them for several moments, before eventually turning towards his front door. For a moment, Johnny and Daniel thought that they had failed before they had even started. That he wasn't going to talk to them at all. However, just as he was unlocking the door, he called to them.
"You have five minutes." He said. Daniel and Johnny smiled widely, hope beginning to creep into their souls, and they followed Stingray into the house…
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"So we just need you to go down to the cops and explain everything. Kreese can get let out and Silver can get the justice he deserves."
"Why the hell would I want to help you?" Stingray asked, as the three adults sat in the living room and Johnny and Daniel told them what they were asking
"Well… it's the right thing to do. It would be freeing an innocent man." Daniel said. To that, Stingray rolled his eyes.
"You think I'm some idiot? You just want Sensei Silver to be locked up because you're Miyagi-Do and he's Cobra Kai." Stingray replied. "I'm not helping Miyagi-Do. I'm no traitor."
As Stingray said this, he glanced sideways at Johnny, who scowled darkly at him.
"Look, you listen here, Stingray." Johnny growled, sitting forward in his chair so he was looking right into Stingray's eyes. "Last summer, you walked into MY dojo and started Karate. MY dojo. Not Silver's. Not Kreese's. You act loyal to them when the truth is, you're my student. You've been my student from the moment you stepped into my dojo. I am your sensei and I'm telling you as your SENSEI that this is what needs to get done."
Stingray glanced at Johnny for several moments, doubts flickering briefly in his eyes, before replying in a low voice.
"I'm not helping any of you." Stingray snapped. "Especially not you traitors at Eagle-Fang."
"Oh for God's sake!" Daniel suddenly interjected, causing Johnny and Stingray to both immediately shut up. Johnny glanced at Daniel, shocked. The one thing Daniel had told him over and over again before they had walked in here was 'don't lose your temper, don't lose your temper, don't lose your temper.' And now suddenly, Daniel was yelling.
"W-what?" Stingray stammered.
"QUIET!" Daniel bellowed at the top of his lungs, causing Johnny to raise an eyebrow but say nothing. "You listen here and you listen good! I know you think that this karate war is the most important thing in the world. I'm not surprised either! I mean look at you! You're a middle aged free louder living in your sister's place! You're 30 years of age! Grow up!"
"Larusso…" Johnny murmured warningly, but Daniel was in no mood to stop.
"NO! You need to hear this!" He shouted. "There is an innocent man right now, rotting behind bars. THAT is what matters in this situation! Not the karate of it all! Kreese's life has ground to a halt and that's no fault of his own! You, on the other hand, have every opportunity waiting for you to seize, and yet you're sitting around, living for karate! Get a job! Get your own place! Trust me, the feeling you get from that independence is a thousand times better than the feeling you get after learning a karate kick!"
Daniel's tone calmed slightly as he looked at Stingray.
"Look, I have faith in you, Stingray. From what I've heard, you're a good guy. A kind, out-going guy. Use that. Find a job that suits those talents. Build a life that's bigger than just karate." Daniel said. "And you have an opportunity to grow right here. An innocent man needs your help. He's slowly dying in that jail and he needs you to help him. You have two choices. You can either ignore everything I've just said and go back to Cobra Kai, continue to let your life bottom out, and let Kreese die behind bars. Or… you can do the RIGHT thing. Help get justice for those who are unable to get it for themself. Be the bigger man and make a better life for yourself. So which is it going to be?"