3.

The Target

Matthias wasn't sure how long he slept when suddenly he was awakened by a pounding on his door. getting up and pulling his pants and shirt on, he walked over and peered through the peep hole. There was a young girl with green eyes and red hair outside.

Puzzled, he opened the door.

"Yes?" he asked

"Please," she pleaded, "you've got to help my father!"

"What's wrong?!" he asked

"There are three guys down in the lobby threatening my father," she explained, "They're instructors at the Cobra Kai dojo and they're looking for some drifter who beat up several of their students earlier today!"

She paused and looked at him pointedly

"You're the one they're looking for, aren't you?" she asked point blank, "I saw you when you checked in.

"Yes," said Matthias, "I'll deal with this!"

Matthias turned and hurrying back into the room, grabbed the long case off the table, and rushed out the door.

Sprinting into the stairwell, he raced down the stairs from the second floor; the girl at his heels.

Down in the lobby, the three instructors had a salt and pepper haired man shoved up against the wall.

"Where is the drifter?!" snapped the stocky built, dark-haired angry looking Cobra Kai.

"I don't know who you're talking about," the man pleaded, "I've only been here for an hour. I was covering a shift for one of my employees who is out sick!"

"Don't lie to me!" raged the instructor drawing back his fist.

"He isn't lying." Said a calm but authoritative voice that stopped the instructor in mid-attack.

The instructors all turned to face Matthias who was standing there with his arms folded across his chest.

A few minutes earlier… A car was driving down the street.

Daniel LaRusso was sitting behind the wheel. Chozen was riding shotgun, and Sam was in the back seat.

Daniel's eyes met his daughter's eyes in the rear-view mirror.

"Are you sure about his, Sam?" he asked

"Yeah," said Sam fighting a yawn, "My friend Megan said that the drifter checked into her dad's hotel earlier this evening."

"Would you recognize him if you saw him again?" asked Chozen

"Yes," said Sam, as another yawn hit her, "But can't this wait? It's 1 o'clock in the morning!"

Daniel shook his head.

"If this guy's even half as good as you said he was, we need to talk to him and get him on our side quick!" he replied

"Besides," said Chozen, "He's already humiliated the Cobra Kai in public, so Silver will be screaming for revenge!"

A few seconds later they pulled into the hotel parking lot. As they were pulling into a parking spot right in front of the lobby windows, Sam suddenly cried out.

"Look!" she said pointing.

Though the windows they could see what appeared to be a teenager standing face to face with no less than three Cobra-Kai instructors!

"That kid is going to need help!" said Daniel

He and Chozen started to get out of the car but to their great surprise they were stopped by Sam's hands on their shoulders.

"That's the drifter," she said, "And believe me, he can take care of himself!"

"He can't be the fighter we're looking for." Said Daniel flabbergasted, "He's only 17 or 18!"

Inside the Lobby Matthias was in a stare down with the three instructors.

"Didn't you hear me," he snapped, "I said the man isn't lying, he doesn't know anything about me being here, now let him go!"
The instructors let go of the man and Matthias motioned for the girl to get her father out of the way without taking his eyes off the three Cobra Kai's.

"So, you're looking for me, huh," he said, "well, you found me, now what do you want?!"

"You've insulted the honor of the Cobra Kai!" snapped the ringleader of the three instructors.

"Humph," snorted Matthias, "Between what happened at the restaurant and what I saw just now you've got some nerve talking about honor!"

That did it! the ringleader attacked only to catch a hard kick to the stomach! As soon as he doubled over from the blow, Matthias threw a spinning back kick that caught the instructor behind him in the jaw hard enough to knock him off his feet and spin him completely around in the process. Matthias followed the back kick with a knee to the face of the ringleader breaking his nose and knocking him down and out.

The third instructor, who had slipped around behind Matthias, jumped on his back and tried to put him in a choke hold. Matthias, instead of struggling, calmly pulled down on the arm around his neck to make the guy, on his back, lean forward. Then he jammed a thumb into the soft spot on the guy's neck up under his jaw and twisted it.

The guy immediately went glassy-eyed and slumped to the floor unconscious.

Matthias turned to the guy he had kicked in the jaw, who was just starting to wake up. He bent down and slapped him in the face to wake him up faster.

"Listen and listen good because I am only going to say this once," growled Matthias in a voice that left no doubt that he meant business, "Take your friends and get out of here, and you tell your boss that if he sends anymore of his bullies down here, they're going to end up looking like the three of you, got it?!"

The instructor who was holding his bleeding nose could only nod.

Daniel, who was still sitting in the car with Sam and Chozen was looking both shocked and impressed.

"This guy must be a prodigy to be that good at such a young age, right Chozen?"

When Chozen didn't answer Daniel turned to see why.

Chozen was white as a sheet!

"It can't be!" he said half to himself, "It's supposed to be a myth!"

"Chozen," said Daniel, "What are you talking about?"

"Did you see that technique he used with the Cobra-Kai who jumped on his back and tried to choke him out?" replied Chozen

"Yeah," said Daniel, "What about it?"

"A little over a century ago it was said in Okinawa that a Miyagi-do master had discovered how to use an attacker's own body against them. a fighting system that made the practitioner capable of knocking out his opponent, crippling them, making them bleed internally or even killing them with only his fingers!" explained Chozen, "But it was said he taught it to only one person before deciding that it was too dangerous to teach it to anyone else. The legend is that he swore this student to secrecy and destroyed the one instruction book that he had written! Over time the generations, that followed, began to believe that this story was just a myth."

"Are you saying that this secret technique is what that guy just used to get out of that choke hold?" asked Sam

Chozen nodded.

"The pressure point techniques that I taught your father are the most similar thing that we've ever practiced," he said, "but somehow this young man knows one of Miyagi-do's most dangerous secrets, one that's not even supposed to exist!"

To be continued…please leave a review.