CHAPTER 32

"Oh, my God! Where did he go? We need to call the police!" Carmen panicked frantically as her and Johnny drove around all of Miguel's usual spots, searching desperately for him. He had been gone for over an hour now, with no message to Carmen or Johnny. For all they knew, he could be sleeping on the streets in some back alley somewhere, where he could get mugged or killed!

"We can't call the cops for a missing person for 24 hours." Johnny murmured in reply.

Spending 5 hours searching, at around 6 in the morning, the sun started to rise. Johnny parked at their compound, where there was still no sign of Miguel. He turned to Carmen.

"Hey, look, he's 16. He's a grown man. I taught him how to defend himself. He's going to be okay." Johnny reassured her. "You should go inside. Get some rest. Miguel may well come back to the house soon, and one of us should be there in case he does."

Carmen eventually nodded.

"Yeah, that's a good idea. Where will you be?" She asked. Johnny took a deep breath.

"I'm going to check one more place. After that, I'll be right back." Johnny replied. Carmen nodded and got out of the car, and then Johnny took off down the road. He drove for 15 minutes, up to Encino Hills, to a house he never wanted to come near again. However, drastic times call for drastic measures.

Johnny got out of his car and walked up to the front of the house, past the perfectly gardened front lawn, and he rang the doorbell. Moments later, a blurry-eyed, extremely dishevelled and exhausted looking Daniel opened the door, but he immediately woke up when he saw who was standing in front of him. He was instantly guarded, raising his hands as if gearing up for a fight, but he quickly lowered them when he saw that Johnny had no intention of throwing fists.

"What do you want?" Daniel asked, confusion undercutting what he was trying to make a harsh tone.

"Hey. Um… can I talk to your daughter?" Johnny asked, his voice surprisingly quiet and Daniel immediately noticed the worry and alarm in his rival's voice. Only one person could trigger that much fear in the normally fearless man: something was wrong with Miguel. Daniel nodded and opened the door for Johnny, leading him into the living room, where Sam and Amanda were sitting. When they saw him, their eyes widened. NOBODY expected to see Johnny standing there, a couple of feet away from his biggest rival, and the two of them not trying to fight each other.

"Johnny! What can we do for you?" Amanda asked, cheerfully. She personally had nothing against Johnny. She didn't care about Daniel and Johnny's rivalry. She didn't care about any of them but Kreese. That man was dangerous, so she had nothing but respect for anyone trying to stop him, even if one of those people was her husband's nemesis.

"Look, sorry to barge in, but have any of you heard anything from Miguel in the past couple of hours?" Johnny asked, directing his question mainly at Sam. Daniel and Amanda shook their heads, and then turned to Sam, who also shook her head.

"No. I saw he posted a couple of pictures with you from Vegas on his Instagram last night, but nothing since." Sam replied. Johnny groaned in worry as the steel fist that was clenching around his heart grew tighter and tighter.

"Why, what's going on, Johnny?" Daniel asked. Johnny sighed.

"Well, Miguel's mom Carmen and I got hitched about a month ago…"

"That's amazing, Johnny! Congratulations!" Amanda exclaimed. Johnny shook his head.

"Not quite. We didn't tell Miguel because we didn't want to stress him out. We kept it secret for a month, but it soon became too much. We decided it was time to tell him once and for all. So I took him to Vegas, to the McGregor Khabib fight…"

"You took him to the UFC? How? That shit's expensive!" Daniel remarked. Amanda glared at her husband.

"Is that really important?" Amanda asked.

"Yeah, Larusso, shut up and listen to your wife. So we had a fun weekend in Vegas, and at the end, he revealed to me that he found out about us getting hitched two days ago. He got pissed that we didn't choose to tell him sooner, and he stormed out of my car. I haven't seen him since."

"What time was this?" Daniel asked.

"Around 1. So he's been gone about 6 hours now." Johnny replied. The Larussos all exchanged worried looks. They didn't have to be fighting for the same dojo to be worried about a teenager out on the streets, alone, in the middle of the night.

"Yeah, I'm really sorry, Johnny. None of us have seen him, but we'll let you know if any of us hear from him." Amanda said, speaking mainly for Samantha, who had gone slightly pale. Johnny nodded.

"Thank you so much." He replied, before walking out the house and continuing to search for his step-son, dialling his phone incessantly and hoping and praying that Miguel would pick up…

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"Hey, how's it going?" Miguel asked, stepping into a cab. He had spent the nights in an alley on the streets, not feeling like going home and facing Johnny and Carmen. He was absolutely LIVID with them. After everything they had all been through together, they had stabbed him in the back. Miguel needed to talk to someone, someone who knew him well, but he did not feel like talking to either of them. That's when it hit him. Someone who knew him his entire life. It was a terrible idea. A fucking horrible idea. But it was the only one he had.

"Not too bad. And yourself?" The taxi driver asked.

"I've been better." Miguel replied, honestly.

"You want to talk about it? Cab drivers are the new bartenders." The driver asked, kindly. Miguel chuckled.

"Not particularly." He replied. The taxi driver nodded.

"Okay, where can I take you?" The driver asked.

When Miguel told him the location, the driver's eyes widened.

"You've got to be joking!" He exclaimed. Miguel shook his head.

"I'm serious. Now, can you take me or not?" He asked. The driver reluctantly nodded.

"All right. Let's go…"

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"WAKE UP, DIAZ! You have a visitor!" A guard bellowed, banging on Miguel's father's cell door. Mr. Diaz groaned and slowly stood up. It was 7 in the morning and he was already being woken up. It was Sunday too. Every prisoner's favourite day. Well, every prisoner but Mr. Diaz. Only one person ever visited him. On the first day of every month, Retired Army Captain John Kreese would visit him, and each time he visited, he would tell Miguel's dad more and more of his story, and how he knew Miguel. Apparently, Kreese had a plan that involved Mr. Diaz, and with every snippet of the story Kreese told him about how Johnny and Miguel screwed him over too, Miguel's dad was more and more into whatever Kreese had in mind.

However, today wasn't the first of the month, so Miguel's father had no idea who was visiting him. He walked into the visitor's centre and did a double take when he saw who was sitting on the other side of the plexiglass window… it was none other than Miguel himself!

Miguel's heart was pounding when he saw his dad sit down opposite him, a mere sheet of glass the only thing separating the two of them. He was absolutely terrified. This was the first time he had seen his dad since everything went down. However, he forced himself to stay calm. He needed answers.

"Well, well, well, look who it is." His dad remarked as Miguel picked up the plastic phone and put it to his ear so the two of them could talk.

"What's up, you son of a bitch?" Miguel growled. "How's prison? I've always heard that prison food is pretty bad. Is that myth or fact?"

"Oh, that's fact, son." Miguel's dad replied. "I swear, sometimes they just scoop mud from the garden and they slop it into a plate and call it dinner."

Miguel chuckled.

"Well, that sounds good." Miguel replied. "You're 42 now so provided you live to 90, only 53,000 meals left."

Miguel smirked as he saw his dad wince at the mention of that, squirming uneasily.

"Why are you here, Miguel?" His father asked, curious. Miguel sighed.

"We need to talk. Man to dickless spineless piece of shit." Miguel stated. His dad rolled his eyes at the cheap insult.

"What can I do for you?" His dad asked. Miguel took a deep breath.

"Do you remember my 10th birthday?" He asked. "I was finally 140 cm so the two of us went to that theme park in Ecuador. I was finally tall enough to go on the biggest rollercoaster in the park, so I insisted we go on the roller coaster…"

"8 times in a row. But you insisted on scarfing 5 corndogs first. After the eighth time, you threw up in a garbage bin, but rather than stopping there, we got back on the ride and did it 5 more times." Miguel's father finished the story. Miguel smiled faintly at the memory. It was one of his favourite days of his childhood, a year before his father became the abusive asshole he was today.

"You were my best friend, you know?" Miguel stated. "My hero. The man I wanted to be when I grew up. But a year later, I was having my face beaten in by that very man. So I ask, what happened?"

"I'm sorry, what?" His dad asked, at a complete loss now.

"What happened?" Miguel repeated. "Why did you stab me in the back like that? I trusted you and I loved you so much, but you threw me under the bus."

Miguel then told his father the whole story. There was no harm. He would be in jail for the rest of his life, anyways. When Miguel revealed to his father that Johnny had married Carmen, his father's face flashed with anger. He wanted to kill Johnny. That man had taken everything from him. However, Miguel's dad forced himself to stay calm. He had the opportunity right there to get in his son's head.

"So you're asking me what made me stab you in the back, so to speak?" His dad asked. Miguel nodded.

"Yeah." Miguel nodded.

"Well, can I point out something?" His dad remarked. "Your mother, Johnny, me. All of these people stabbed you in the back. You keep asking what made us do what we did. Something the three of us have in common. Well, there is one thing that is the constant in all three situations. Well, one person. You. Have you ever considered that you might be the problem, Miguel?"

Miguel fell silent for several moments as he took in what his father had just said. He blinked, and then he once again saw the man who had beaten him mercilessly for 3 years before they fled Ecuador. The brief moment they had of being civil towards each other was over.

"You know what? This was a mistake. Fuck you." Miguel snapped, before slamming the phone back onto the cradle and storming out of the prison…

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"All right! Class, listen up!" Kreese barked, and the Cobra Kais quickly snapped to attention. "I have a new drill for all of you. Follow me."

The Cobra Kai students followed Kreese down to the back dojo, and when they walked in, they saw three metal human dummies in the center of the room. A paper picture of Miguel, Hawk and Sam's face were stuck on each of the three dummies' faces, and various red circles were stuck on various spots on each person's body. The Cobras looked at Kreese, questioningly. He quickly explained to them what was going on.

"This is our final step before the All-Valley." Kreese announced. "I have taught all of you how to fight any random opponent. But, to win the All-Valley, I need to teach you how to face the tournament's biggest threats. Take a look at the Mr. Diaz dummy here for example…"

The Cobras all walked around the dummy of Miguel that Kreese had made. There was a red circle stuck on Miguel's back, and another red circle stuck on his left arm.

"The two target zones that I want both of you to aim for should you have to fight Mr. Diaz are the back and the left arm. Thanks to Mr. Keene, Mr. Diaz is far from his full fighting capacity. He has two weaknesses, his back and his left shoulder. When you fight him, be sure to isolate those areas with your hits."

As Robby listened to Kreese talk, his jaw dropped in horror. He couldn't believe what Kreese was asking them to do. It was like he was finally waking up and wisening to what was going on. Kreese wasn't trying to just win the fight: he was trying to obliterate his opponents. And Robby knew one thing… he needed to get out. NOW!