CHAPTER 49

Miguel's car was slowly gaining on Kreese's, inch by inch getting closer as the two cars swerved around each other. Miguel assumed that Kreese would be trying to get onto the freeway but in fact, he was wrong. With every mile, Kreese drove further and further towards Downtown L.A, and Miguel was forced to follow him. As they sped through a tunnel, Miguel turned to his friends. They were all bouncing around wildly in their seats due to Miguel's maniacal driving.

"Put your seatbelts on, guys!" Miguel exclaimed.

"THEY ARE ON! YOU DRIVE LIKE YOU'RE FUCKING INSANE!" Tory bellowed. Miguel laughed and kept on speeding closer and closer to Kreese. Soon, they arrived in the centre of the city. Kreese drove right on the pavement, smashing through an empty outside cafe and barrelling through all of the chairs and tables in his haste to escape. Miguel groaned in annoyance and followed him deeper into the city. Terrified civilians dived out of the way of the two cars as they skidded through the narrow streets. Eventually, Miguel had managed to corner Kreese in an alley. It was a dead end. There was nowhere for Kreese to go. The 3 teenagers in the passenger seats cheered, thinking the chase was finally over, but Miguel wasn't so sure. The three passengers got out of the car, starting to jog towards Kreese, but Miguel stayed in the car. He was exhausted. All of that precision driving had really taken everything out of him.

Suddenly, the tail lights of Kreese's car lit up, indicating that he was about to reverse. Luckily, Robby, Sam and Tory noticed and they dived out of the way, but Miguel was forced to take the full impact as Kreese reversed and smashed right into the front of Miguel's car. The airbags immediately activated, and Miguel groaned from the impact. However, he had quick enough reflexes to floor the accelerator of his car, causing the two cars to come to a stalemate, the force of both cars pressing against each other in opposite directions cancelling out their movement.

Miguel used this brief opportunity to try and think of a plan. Because of the crash, Kreese's car was in much better shape than Miguel's, and Miguel knew he didn't have longer than a couple of seconds before the car gave out and Kreese smashed past him and away into the city. At this point, not only Tory, Sam and Robby were watching, but a bunch of other gawking civilians too. Miguel slowly closed his eyes and let his Low Latent Inhibition take over. A ton of possible plans flooded through his mind, and his brain automatically picked the best one. Clenching his jaw, he took a deep breath. He had this! He looked behind him and he saw a brick wall, and he looked in front of him and saw Kreese's car. He had only one good choice remaining…

Not trembling anymore but totally calm, Miguel gripped the clutch pedal and suddenly sent the car into a drift around Kreese's. This completely shocked Kreese and didn't let him have the time to lift his foot from the reverse pedal before he went smashing into the wall behind him. Miguel sat back in his car and smiled faintly as he listened to Kreese desperately try to restart his car but after a couple of splutters, the car completely gave out and died.

At that moment, just as Miguel and Kreese were both stepping out of their respective cars, the LAPD showed up. Getting out of the 3 squad cars were not only 6 cops, but also Daniel, Johnny, Jimmy, Bobby and Julie too. Miguel smiled widely, relieved, when he saw them, and he watched as the cops handcuffed Kreese and arrested him. Miguel, still shaken and banged up from the car accident, limping over to Johnny, who put an arm around him.

"You good, kid?" Johnny asked. Miguel nodded and winced as his neck flared from a bit of whiplash.

"Yup. All good." Miguel murmured as he watched Kreese being shoved, handcuffed, into the police car. "I can't believe it. This war's finally over."

Johnny smiled and nodded.

"Yup. It's finally over…"

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

The next morning, Miguel went to go and see his father. If nothing else, he owed the man a thank you. If it wasn't for his father, they NEVER would have found Kreese. As he drove to the prison, Miguel thought to himself. Maybe his father was serious about wanting to be a better man? It might take time, but MAYBE, Miguel could trust him again.

Miguel walked into the extremely familiar visiting centre of the prison, and he walked over to the front desk guard. He smiled at Miguel.

"Hey, man. Who are you here to see?" He asked.

"Um… Rafa Diaz." Miguel replied. The man's face dropped, and he looked down for several moments, before looking back at Miguel.

"I'm really sorry. Mr. Diaz died a couple of days ago from an unexpected heart attack."

Miguel's mouth dropped. He put his head in his hands. He couldn't believe it! He felt his heart begin to pound, and he felt something he never thought he would ever feel towards that man: grief. Miguel felt his legs give out, so he stumbled over to a bench at the corner of the visiting centre. The guard quickly walked over to him and sat next to him.

"I'm really sorry. Are you his family?" The guard asked. Miguel took a deep breath and hesitated before answering. Was that man his father? Obviously he was biologically, but Miguel didn't care about that. He cared about emotionally. His heated conversation with his father from a couple of days ago rang through Miguel's head as he answered…

"Yeah." Miguel replied, wiping a loose tear from his face. "Yeah, I am…"

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Three weeks later…

"Ayyyyyyy!" Everyone exclaimed as Miguel walked into the restaurant. It had been three weeks since the war was officially over, and Johnny, Miguel, Daniel, Sam, Tory, Robby, Hawk and Demitri decided to all go out together to celebrate at the best pizza place in L.A - a tiny, grubby cafe called Ballotelli's. Miguel was the last to arrive, and he sat at the end of the table between Hawk and Sam.

"Sorry I'm late. Traffic was a real bitch." Miguel murmured.

"All right. If it's okay, I'd like to make a toast." Daniel said, raising his bottle of 7Up in the air. "To all of you teens. It was our fault you were thrown into this mess in the first place, but you handled everything really well, especially towards the end. The sacrifices all of you made for this cause… Just know that Johnny and I are really, really proud of you guys, and we know that you are all going to do great things in life. You showed strength, resilience, determination, respect and class - everything you need to find success in the world. You guys are awesome. We love you. Cheers."

"Cheers!" They all chanted, hitting their cups of pop together. As the group erupted into conversation, Miguel smiled and sat back, looking at the group around him. Although the Karate war had nearly killed him twice, he didn't regret a single moment of it. Because if not for karate, he would have never met his beautiful girlfriend, his stepfather, his stepbrother, all of his friends, and a job at the McLaren factory that he loved. Miguel had never been happier. Life was good…

So that's it! The story's officially over! It has been a pleasure writing it, and it has been a lot of fun too. I might take a bit of a break from writing, but I will definitely be back with another Cobra Kai story soon (most likely another Miguel centered on - up to you about Miguel/Sam, Miguel/Tory or Miguel/O.C). I have come up with a couple of ideas, and I would love to hear your vote.

1) Go back to my old, unfinished story called War of Season 3 (If you haven't read it, be sure to give it a read)

2) A Hunger Games kind of story but with the Cobra Kai cast (Miguel and Sam the two tributes from District 12, Johnny the drunk mentor, etc.)

3) A plane crash story where Cobra Kai, Miyagi-Do and Eagle-Fang all get into a plane crash as they are all headed to Karate National Championships. Lost/Lord of the Flies kind of story

4) A classic future love story between Miguel and Sam that occurs when they are both around 26. Miguel (a new-york born guy) is on 30 day vacation from the U.S Navy and Sam is working on her PHD in NYU. On Christmas Eve, there is a massive blizzard and Sam can't fly home to L.A to be with her family. The two of them meet in a bar, and their romance story blossoms from there, as one of them is in the military and one of them is a psychology student

5) Any other ideas you might have! I have gotten the ideas above from friends or made them up myself, but I would also love to hear any ideas you might have. Be sure to drop your vote or your story idea in the comment/review section, or feel free to P.M me to have a chat!

See you all soon! I love you guys!