CHAPTER 26

"Everybody sit down and listen up!" Kreese barked at his Cobra Kai recruits. They all immediately sat cross-legged on the floor of the dojo, looking up at him for further instructions. The way Kreese instructed the Cobras made him feel like he was back in the Army, and was leading his platoon.

Barnes and Silver stood at the side of the room, and Kreese gestured to Barnes, who walked over to him and stood opposite him at the center of the mat.

"So far, since Sensei Lawrence left, you have all gotten way physically and mentally stronger. You have all finally gotten Johnny's 'Show Mercy' shit out of your systems. However, what I haven't focused on enough is teaching you new techniques and strikes. And for that… I don't apologise! You weren't ready yet! But now, you are. I am going to teach you the 5 strikes that are most deadly to your opponent. The first strike… the elbow to the heart!"

Robby sat and watched as Kreese demonstrated 3 extremely lethal strikes, and he thought to himself for the millionth time: What the hell was he doing here? Trying to get back at Miguel? Trying to get back at Johnny? Was that seriously worth being taught by such a terrifying man? But Robby didn't dare say anything. He knew that Cobra Kai wouldn't just let him leave peacefully - they would give him physical hell. It was fine though. The All-Valley was in two months, and if he won that, maybe Cobra Kai would let him leave in peace.

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The next morning, Miyagi-Do stood at the dojo, all of them carrying backpacks and duffel bags. Daniel had surprised them all with a surprise, one-night camping trip in the forest. It was supposed to be a Miyagi-Do team bonding/training exercise for them, a desperately needed one as despite Julie's addition to the team, team morale was still pretty low without Hawk, Miguel and Johnny. The three of them had brought life and spirit to the team, and Demitri, Sam and the rest of the team couldn't fill that hole that they left behind. In addition, a massive problem within the team was Sam and Daniel's relationship. Although a combination of Amanda, Julie and time had helped heal the worst of her depression, she was still extremely upset at her father. He had meddled in her relationship multiple times, not to mention the fact that he had PUNCHED Miguel and driven them out of the group.

"All right! Let's get going! Everyone follow my car, okay?" Daniel said. There were about 8 of them, so they were driving up to the campsite by the lake in 3 cars. "Sam? Wanna ride with me?" Daniel asked, turning to his daughter hopefully. Sam looked at him and scowled.

"No, I'm gonna ride with Julie." Sam said, walking away from him. Julie shot Daniel an apologetic look, before walking with Sam over to her car. Sam and Julie had built a pretty strong bond over the past two weeks. Julie was the badass female sensei that Sam had always dreamed of training with. In addition, she seemed to be a lot more balanced and Miyagi-like than Daniel. She had been living in L.A for 5 years, and wasn't dating anyone but was extremely happy that way.

"All right." Daniel sighed. "Let's go! See you guys in 2 hours…"

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"Sensei, what the hell is going on?" Miguel asked as him, Johnny, Hawk and Jimmy parked in the woods. Jimmy's wife and kids were visiting his wife's mom for the weekend so Johnny and Jimmy decided to seize that opportunity and do a one night Eagle-Fang bootcamp out in the woods. Jimmy hadn't arrived yet though. He would be coming a bit later.

"We're camping." Johnny replied. Miguel looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Um… what? We don't have any supplies! What are we going to drink?"

"There's a lake about a mile away, remember." Johnny stated.

"And what are we going to eat?" Hawk asked, just as confused as Miguel.

"We hunt, gather and fish." He replied.

"And where are we going to sleep?" Miguel asked. Johnny laughed and spread his arms out.

"We'll sleep right here. Build our own fire. We're doing things like the cavemen did it. You know how much I love the cavemen!"

"Oh jeez. Fuck me." Miguel muttered under his breath. "All right, I'm going to go collect firewood or something…"

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Daniel and his convoy parked their car at the campsite an hour and a half later, and when they all got out of their cars, they immediately heard the sound of boisterous music coming from around a quarter of a mile away. The group all looked at each other, confused. Nobody knew that they were going to be there, and their camping spot wasn't exactly the most popular location.

"Did you tell anyone we were here?" Julie asked Daniel. Daniel shook his head.

"Not a soul." Daniel replied. At this point, Sam and Demitri also walked over to them, confused.

"What's going on?" Demitri asked. "Who are those people?"

"I don't know." Daniel replied.

"Should we go investigate? I mean, that could be Cobra Kai." Sam said. Daniel nodded and the four of them walked into the woods, towards the loud music…

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"Sensei, could you please turn off the music?" Miguel begged. Him and Hawk were walking around the area, collecting firewood, as Johnny sat on the forest ground and sipped his beer. Miguel and Hawk were sweating - it was extremely straining work. They knew that this was definitely not a vacation; it was training.

"No!" Johnny shouted back, blasting his 80s rock music even louder from the speaker Miguel had gotten him for his birthday a month earlier. Miguel groaned, regretting that he didn't buy his sensei headphones instead.

"Yo, where's Jimmy at?" Hawk asked. He loved having Jimmy as a sensei. Him and Jimmy had developed a great bond. While Johnny focussed a lot of his attention on Miguel, Jimmy spent most of his time on Hawk. It made Hawk feel like less of an understudy to Miguel, and more of a champion. Jimmy knew exactly how Hawk felt. Back in high school, Jimmy hadn't done much more than play second fiddle to Johnny, despite the fact that he was an as good, if not better, fighter.

"He's coming. He's just bringing our next training exercise." Johnny replied. Miguel and Hawk looked at each other, confused and slightly worried. They had gone through a LOT of Johnny's 'training exercises' in the recent past, and none of them were too pleasant.

"I'm not even gonna ask." Miguel murmured quietly to Hawk. Hawk chuckled and the two continued dumping their firewood in the center of their campfire location.

A couple of minutes later, Miguel heard the snap of a branch around 200 meters away. His hair instinctively stood up on its end, like a cat sensing danger. He quickly ran over to Johnny and whispered something in his ear. Johnny's eyes widened in alarm and he nodded…

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As Daniel, Julie, Sam and Demitri crept through the woods, the previously boisterous music suddenly cut off, leaving the woods eerily silent. The birds weren't singing, the light breeze completely dropped. Eventually, the four Miyagi-Dos made it to a clearing, where there was a pile of logs in the center. Daniel walked around, and his eyes widened when he spotted something… an empty Coors Banquet bottle.

"What's going on? Is it Cobra Kai?" Sam asked. Daniel slowly shook his head and his head whipped around, searching for the campers.

"No. It's not Cobra Kai." Daniel murmured in alarm. "Guys, let's get out of here!"

The four of them turned around, ready to run as they could hear the panic in Daniel's expression, but they didn't move a single step. As they turned around, standing right in front of them and blocking their escape route were Johnny, Miguel and Hawk. Johnny was holding a branch aloft like a baseball bat, and both Miguel and Hawk also looked ready for a fight.

"The hell are you doing here?" Daniel snapped.

"I'm training my students. You got a problem with that, Larusso?" Johnny growled, beginning to square up to Daniel. Daniel, who wasn't about to back away from a fight with Johnny, was easily goaded and he started to square up to Johnny. Instinctively, Miguel and Sam stood in front of their senseis, briefly making eye contact with each other as they held their senseis back from a fight. Thankfully, Johnny and Daniel both took a couple of steps back from each other and settled for simply staring daggers at each other. At that moment, Johnny finally noticed the other sensei standing next to Daniel, and he raised an eyebrow.

"Who's the chick?" Johnny asked, curiously. Julie was instantly offended by Johnny's remark, and Daniel had to hold her back to stop her from charging at Johnny. Johnny chuckled as he did exactly what he intended: getting a rise out of all of them.

"Julie, stop. That's just how he talks." Daniel murmured to her. She scowled at Johnny, but Daniel smirked at him. "Johnny, meet my new partner, Sensei Pierce."

Johnny's grin faded slightly as he heard that Daniel had a new sensei. However, moments later, another car pulled up a couple of meters away, and Johnny grinned. Jimmy had arrived. It was 4 pm so his wife and kids were gone, and he was ready to get to work.

"Ah, there he is. Larusso, I want you to meet my new partner. I believe you've already met though." Johnny remarked. At that moment, Jimmy got out of his car and walked over to the group. When Daniel saw him, his face paled, despite the fact that Jimmy looked nothing but cheerful. Daniel didn't know about Jimmy being a family man now. All he saw was his old childhood bully.

"Hey, Daniel! How's it going?" Jimmy asked. Daniel's face was ghostly white.

"J… J… Jimmy? What are you doing here?" Daniel stammered, still in shock. Jimmy shrugged.

"Well, Johnny called me a while ago and told me that he needed help taking down Kreese. Given everything that old bastard put us through back in the day, I happily offered to help."

Daniel eventually got over his shock, and his shock turned to anger.

"Okay, you guys need to get the hell out of here now." Daniel snapped. Johnny and Jimmy scowled at him.

"Why? We were here first." Johnny spat back.

"Yeah, but this was Mr. Miyagi's spot. This is Miyagi-Do's location." Daniel snapped.

"I'm sorry but I believe this is a public forest." Jimmy stated. "Do you own this land? No! So we have just as much of a right to be here than you. So why don't we just compromise and we both stay here, but stay the hell away from each other?"

"Works for me." Julie said, grateful for another less foggy-judgement adult around. Daniel and Johnny eventually nodded and turned back to their respective dojos.

"Okay. Well, this is our campsite. Get the hell away." Johnny growled. Daniel nodded and his Miyagi-Dos walked back towards theirs. Two rival dojos in the same woods for a weekend. This was going to be fun…

So I know that things are looking kinda bleak for Miguel/Sam fans, but trust me, it's not over. As Johnny would say, the fight's not over until we say it's over