CHAPTER 9

"What happened at the go-karting arena was an embarrassment!" Kreese bellowed at the Cobras later that day. "What a joke! What the hell happened? Keene? What's your excuse?"

Robby looked down in shame.

"No excuses, sensei. Diaz bested us." Robby murmured, blushing furiously. Diaz alone had humiliated 6 Cobra Kai members. Kreese sighed and took out a cigar from his pocket, as well as his cigar cutter, and started cutting it.

"Seems like Diaz has been causing you guys quite a bit of trouble, huh?" Kreese remarked. "Why do you think we're competing in this All-Valley?"

"I'm sorry, what, sensei?" Tory asked, confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, why did we agree to the bet with Miyagi-do in the first place? It's not like we agreed to a peace treaty up until the tournament so if we wanted to beat up Miyagi-Do, we can do it whenever we want. It would be a lot faster. So why are we risking this dojo to fight in a tournament, where most decisions are out of our control? Keene?"

Robby didn't know. He had no answer.

"Nichols?"

Tory didn't know either.

"Kyler?"

No answer.

"Well…" Kreese continued. "Because every good story has two sides. But in this story, we are so superior to Miyagi-Do that there aren't two sides anymore. So we had to inject them with something… hope. A little hope is good. It livens the rivalry up a little. But a lot of hope… a lot of hope is dangerous. That's when they start to become a threat."

"So what should we do, sensei?" Robby asked. Kreese grinned, maliciously.

"Well, in 'Nam, when we experienced a threat, there was only one thing to do: you eliminate the threat…"

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"Where should we go for dinner?" Chris asked the group, a couple of days later. They had just finished a long, three hour training session and they were all ravenous.

"Sushi?" Demitri suggested.

"Nah, I had sushi last night." Sam said.

"Italian?" Hawk suggested.

"Nah, I had Italian for lunch." Mitch said.

"Chinese?" Sam suggested.

"Nah, I don't like chinese." Hawk said.

"Indian?" Chris suggested.

"I just said I don't like chinese." Hawk said, rather dumbly. Everyone looked at him, confused.

"Um… indian isn't chinese." Sam pointed out. Hawk shrugged.

"Weird meats. Funny music. Side of rice. Why are we splitting hairs?" Hawk remarked, EXTREMELY politically incorrectly. Man, that kid had more in common with Johnny than even Miguel did.

"Mexican?" Demitri suggested.

"I just said I don't like chinese!" Hawk exclaimed. Everyone put their heads in their hands in frustration.

"Hey, where the hell's Miguel at?" Mitch asked. Everyone nodded and turned to Sam in confusion. Miguel had rushed off immediately, not staying and hanging out like the rest of the group.

"Oh, he has an evening job to help pay the debt from his back surgery." Sam replied.

"I thought we paid for that. We had that whole car wash and everything." Demitri remarked. Sam nodded and glared at Hawk.

"Yeah, I thought so too. Hawk, care to explain?" Sam snapped at him. Hawk blushed.

"Hey, look, it wasn't my idea! Well, it was my idea to steal the money but I just wanted to give it right back to Miguel and say it was from Cobra Kai." Hawk stated. "It was Kreese who ended up spending it on the renovations to the dojo. Apparently, according to him, it is a 'waste to spend money on a fallen soldier.'"

"That's… sad." Demitri remarked. "But that doesn't explain where Miguel is. Where's he working at?"

"Oh, he's waiting tables at that restaurant Briny Beach." Sam replied, the words slipping out before she could stop herself. Everyone's eyes widened.

"Wait… you mean that pirate restaurant where they make their wait staff wear insanely embarrassing pirate outfits?!" Hawk exclaimed, gleefully. Sam blushed and shook her head. Miguel had explicitly told her to not tell anyone he was working there for that very reason.

"No." She replied, unconvincingly.

30 minutes later…

The whole group stood at the entrance of the restaurant, waiting for a waiter to direct them to their table. As they looked around at the flamboyantly dressed wait staff, all of them grinned widely.

"I've never been this excited in my life!" Hawk exclaimed, rubbing his hands together in glee. Suddenly, an extremely familiar waiter dressed in a full pirate costume - complete with a fake parrot on his shoulder and a hat and eye patch - walked over to them. Miguel hadn't seen them yet so he put on the traditional pirate accent the manager forced him to put on.

"Welcome to the Briny Beach. Where none of our prices are ever too stee… oh crap." Miguel murmured as he finally looked up and saw the ecstatic expressions on his friends' faces. He groaned.

"Seriously, Sam?!" He exclaimed. Sam blushed and shook her head.

"Sorry! It just slipped out." Sam murmured. Miguel sighed.

"Hi, Miguel!" Hawk grinned cheerfully. "We were just in the neighborhood and thought we'd get some dinner. We didn't even know you'd be here."

"Just come with me." Miguel snapped.

"Woah! I don't think that's how you're supposed to treat customers here at the Briny Beach!" Demitri exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear, as he pulled out his camera and took a photo of Miguel. Miguel sighed, defeated.

"We've got fresh fish, you can look in our tank." Miguel continued, mumbling curse words under his breath between sentences. "To get to the bathroom, take a left at the plank. Follow me to your table…"

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"So, moral of the story of today. The thing I want to express to you the most is that if you trust people, they will always come through for you at the end."

Bobby finished his sermon speech and was about to step down from the podium when he heard a familiar, slurred drunk voice echo through the church.

"BULLSHIT!" Johnny slurred as he stumbled towards Bobby, clearly hammered.

"Johnny, um… what a… pleasant surprise. Again." Bobby remarked. Johnny tripped and stumbled over to the top of the podium, and he snatched the microphone from Bobby, before addressing the entire church.

"Sometimes you give everything you have for someone, and they still stab you in the back!" Johnny announced. The whole church stared at Johnny, appalled and astounded.

"Johnny, can this wait? I'm kind of in the middle of something." Bobby said. Johnny rolled his eyes.

"Whatever! These people need to know!" Johnny exclaimed. "Sometimes, you treat someone like a son, do everything you can possibly do for someone, and they still fuck you over!"

"Okay! We're going to take a short break!" Bobby called, and quickly dragged Johnny out of the church and into a small, adjoining room.

The two sat opposite each other, and Bobby was the first to break a brief silence.

"Let me guess… trouble with Miguel?" Bobby asked. Johnny scoffed.

"More like the bitch boy stabbed me in the back. Blindly picked the manipulative, asshole Larusso and his family over me."

Bobby raised an eyebrow. He had met Miguel once before, and after seeing his allegiance to Johnny, he knew that there had to be more to the story than that.

"Seriously? Tell me what happened." Bobby said. Johnny then told him everything and by the end, Bobby chuckled.

"What?" Johnny asked.

"Well, it seems to me that it wasn't Miguel's fault." Bobby remarked. "It seems to me that it was inevitable. That because you and Larusso didn't carve out specific terms in your partnership, given you guys' track record, things were bound to blow up at some point."

"You don't get it, Bobby." Johnny muttered. "I gave this kid everything. I ruined my relationship with my own biological son because of him…"

"And because of that, he is automatically your slave forever?" Bobby remarked. "No! He is entitled to his own opinion! And besides, do you think he likes hearing you bring up Robby?! You gotta remember this is the same kid who nearly killed him. More than once. Miguel's clearly still traumatised, and he needs you, Johnny. Even if he's not admitting it, he needs you. He needs you in his corner, not only physically, but also emotionally. You need to be there for him."

Johnny eventually nodded and put his head in his hands. He had screwed up. He knew it.

"I let him down, Bobby." Johnny murmured. "How do I get him to trust me again?"

Bobby chuckled and shrugged.

"Well, from what I've heard about him, an apology would be a good start…"

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Later that night, Miguel walked into his house to see that his mom and grandma were out of the house, and a note from his mom told him to sort his own dinner out that night. Miguel did that and right before he settled down for the night, he grabbed the garbage bag and took it outside to throw out. He threw the bag in the dumpster and as he walked back towards his house, his eyes lingered on the house next door: Johnny's apartment. Miguel was about to knock on the door and see Johnny but at the last moment, he hesitated. No! Why should he be the one to apologise? As far as he was concerned, it should be Johnny doing so!

Miguel scowled and shook his head, and he started to walk away from Johnny's place and towards his own. However, just as he had a hand on a handle, he heard a car drive up behind him. Miguel turned around and his heart dropped when he saw four people get out of the car: it was Robby, Shawn, Tory and Kyler.

As they advanced towards him, Miguel banged on his sensei's door, hoping and praying that Johnny was home. No luck. Miguel groaned and he started walking towards the four, readying himself for an inevitable fight. He was backed into a corner so he had nowhere he could possibly run.

"What do you want?" Miguel snapped.

"To finish this. Tonight." Robby growled. "Now, we can either do this the easy way or the hard way."

"What's the easy way?" Miguel snapped.

"Well, the easy way is you stop training karate, you don't compete in the All-Valley, and you let Cobra Kai live on forever. The hard way is that we beat you up and injure you so severely that you physically can't compete in the All-Valley." Robby replied. "Now, I'll admit, neither option is great but, you know, people like to have options."

Miguel chuckled.

"Well, let's see. I guess I'll go with Option C." Miguel remarked. Robby raised an eyebrow.

"And what's that one?" Robby asked. Miguel shrugged.

"Well, Option C is the one where I beat the crap out of all four of you." Miguel replied, before lunging at the group, ready to fight…

However, that was NOT how the fight ended up panning out. Not at all. After all, it was a 4 on 1, and against four of the fiercest fighters in the Valley. After defeating Kyler, Miguel was overpowered by the other 3. He lay on the ground, unable to move, as the three kicked the living crap out of him. Miguel looked up at the three merciless Cobras and was suddenly pulled into traumatising flashbacks of Coyote Creek. He truly wasn't good enough to beat Cobra Kai. No amount of punches, kicks and grapples would be able to match Robby.

As this all went on, Johnny drove home from his conversation and when he pulled into the compound and saw the commotion going on, his eyes widened. He dived out of his car and sprinted over, just as Robby flipped an only just conscious Miguel onto his stomach, and grabbed his arm in a similar lock to the one that Miguel had him in during the end of the school fight. Johnny ran over to them, unfazed by Shawn and Tory, who stood in front of Robby and Miguel like bodyguards, and spoke directly to his son.

"Robby, please don't do this." Johnny begged. "Please. Don't punish him for the crap that I've done. He's innocent."

Robby scowled at his dad as he held Miguel's arm even tighter, prepared to snap it at a moment's notice.

"You don't get it, do you?" Robby growled at his dad. "This isn't about you. This stopped being about you when this cunt walked into my life and ruined it."

"Robby… Robby… this isn't his fault. It's mine. It's all my fault."

"Right, 'cause it was you who made Sam cheat on me twice, once while I was IN JUVIE!" Robby shouted. "It's all Miguel! It's always been about Miguel! You ruined my life in so many ways. Cobra Kai and Kreese are the only good things I have going for me now, and so help me God I'm not going to let you and your pussy rebel team take it away from me!"

With that, Robby did what Miguel couldn't during the school fight: Robby finished him. He snapped Miguel's shoulder, causing Miguel to let out a horrifying cry of excruciating pain as he felt his shoulder separate...

To be continued…