CHAPTER 202

Sarah's heart pounded. She couldn't breathe. As she was dragged through the dark, abandoned laser tag maze, she could hear the sound of fighting in the distance. The faint thudding of punches and kicks hitting their marks, as well as the indistinguishable shouts of pain or anguish from the fighters, stabbed right through Sarah's heart as she remembered who exactly was fighting. She knew that Marcos and whatever allies he had were there, trying to fight off an entire army all by themselves.

Marcos could take care of himself, Sarah told herself over and over again, trying to reassure herself. He was the best fighter she knew, she thought, although that did little to reassure her as she remembered who he was up against. Sarah couldn't care less about her own well being at this point. All she wanted was for Marcos to be okay. She wished there was a way that he would turn around and go home where he would be safe, despite whatever would become of her. She knew full well by now that Marcos' father felt the exact same way as Marcos did: the pair wanted each other ridden from the face of the earth and would stop at nothing to do so.

The girl wanted more than anything to fight, wanted more than anything to get to Marcos to help protect him from his father, and so it was absolutely killing her that she was stuck here, being dragged along with her hands tied by a nameless henchman. Sarah had no idea where he was taking her: all she was that he was taking her deeper and deeper into the maze.

All Sarah thought about was Marcos: whether he was still fighting; whether he was okay; whether he had found his father yet. The not knowing was almost as painful as thinking about the potential harm that could befall them. Soon, she could bear it no longer. She needed to find out. She needed to help. But if she wanted any chance of being able to do that, she needed to get the hell away from the captor who was pushing her through the maze.

The Sekai Taikai champion's mind whirred as she tried to come up with a plan and eventually, one came to her. All of a sudden, as Sarah felt herself being pulled along by the henchman, Sarah tripped. She fell flat on her face, her bound hands doing absolutely nothing to help catch her as she fell.

"Shit." She heard the henchman behind her mutter. Sarah, meanwhile, waited patiently as she lay on the ground. She waited until rough, calloused hands grabbed her by her arm and began to pull her back up to her feet. Only when Sarah felt that did she finally strike…

A vicious sweep took the henchman completely by surprise, Sarah's leg connecting perfectly with his, sending him crashing to the ground. Sarah then wasted no time leaping to her feet, and then kicking the henchmen a few times for good measure, preventing him from rising to his feet. She aimed her kicks at his head, stomach and groin and when she was certain he was done, she turned on her heel and sprinted in the only direction available: deeper into the maze. Her hands were still tied and she was still being gagged, but at least now she was free. She was free to try and find Marcos. She was free to fight back.

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Hector Salazar sat on a bench midway through the mini golf course in Golf n Stuff, breathing in the fresh midnight air, and his face broke out into a large grin when he saw who was walking up the path towards him.

"Ah… just the man I wanted to see." Hector remarked as he slowly stood up, facing his son as the boy stormed towards him.

"Where's my sister?!" Miguel demanded. Laura was his priority. If he managed to find her without fighting his father, that was fine by him, as long as she made it out. But if his father didn't cooperate, Miguel wouldn't hesitate to do whatever it took to get the information out of him.

Hector wasn't nearly in the same rush Miguel was, the time crunch that Miguel was under proving not to be the same for the Cartel leader, so the man chuckled and shook his head.

"You know what, son? I genuinely don't know." Hector replied honestly. "Nor do I really care. This was never about her. She was irrelevant to all of this. Just a means to an end. I'm sorry about that."

"She's a child! An innocent child that you kidnapped!" Miguel shot back. "You traumatized her and my entire family, and all you have to say is 'sorry about that'?! Are you serious?!"

Hector shrugged.

"I kidnapped her, huh? You mean I took her away from her loved ones without warning. Where have I heard that story before?" Hector commented, not so subtly making a reference to his own child's past. Miguel understood immediately what the man was implying and he shook his head furiously.

"That's different. My mom did that for my own good. For my own safety. And right now, I don't blame her one bit." Miguel looked his father right in the eye as he told him all of this. "My whole life, I dreamed of getting to know you, you know? I would lie in bed when I was a kid, wondering why my dad wasn't around. Then when I got older, I grew resentful of the fact that my mom kept you away."

Hector remained completely quiet as Miguel spoke.

"Mom would tell me that even though you were my father, I was better off not knowing you. That you were a bad man so I needed to stay the hell away from you. Well, I know now that she was wrong."

Hector chuckled and nodded.

"I'm glad we can agree on that, Miguel. That bitch robbed both of us of something that could've been something great." Hector snapped. Miguel's face darkened as he shook his head.

"That's my mother you're talking about." Miguel snarled. "And she was absolutely right about that part. The only part she got wrong was when she would say that you are my father. Because you're not."

"I think any DNA test would disagree." Hector responded. Miguel shook his head again.

"If there's one thing I've learned in the past few years, it's that family isn't necessarily who you're born with. People might say that blood is thicker than water, but when it truly comes down to it, the people who are your family are the people who matter most to you, whether you're born with them or you meet them along the way. They are the people who are always there for you. The people who you strive to be like. And I think, after 18 years, I've finally met that family."

Miguel wasn't just talking about Carmen, Laura and Rosa. He wasn't just talking about Robby and Johnny either. He was talking about all of Miyagi-Do: every single member of the dojo had played a part in shaping him into the person he was today. He definitely wouldn't be where he was today without any of them, and so his friendships with all of them had naturally blossomed into familial bonds. The same bonds that had led to all of the Miyagi-Dos showing up here without hesitation to fight alongside him.

Hector, on the other hand, didn't exactly share the same sentiment. He slowly and sarcastically clapped his hands, mocking his son.

"Well, I'm just delighted to hear that, Miguel. It means all the more people to have their hearts broken when they have to wipe up your body from this park…"

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Although Hector might've been the person to attack first, it was actually Miguel who landed the first strike. As soon as Miguel snapped into his fighting mindset, 3 years worth of Johnny's teachings came rushing back to him. Strike First. Strike Hard. Show Mercy. The core fundamentals of Eagle-Fang Karate were imprinted deep within his very essence.

As Miguel landed the first punch of the fight, a hook punch to the side of the head that sent Hector staggering backwards, the teenager was given a grossly inaccurate representation of what the fight would be like. Miguel wasn't one to underestimate an opponent so he didn't let up in any way, but the ease with which he landed his first punch meant that he was indeed surprised when his father came flying at him in retaliation, with a flurry of razor-sharp punches and kicks. A few of them even found their mark, Miguel forced to take the brunt of the impact right to the head or stomach as he stumbled away from his father to compose himself and catch his breath.

As Miguel was sent backwards by his father, the older man didn't pressure him and try to finish the fight early. No… Hector was going to take this one slow, and enjoy every second of it. Every hit he landed, he pictured the fact that as he struck Miguel, he was indirectly striking Carmen too. He was finally getting his retribution for everything she had done to him, for the way that she had ruined his life after everything he had sacrificed for her.

Miguel wiped the blood that was beginning to drip from his chin as he stood once more and faced his father, shock written on his face. This man could fight?! Hector noticed this and he chuckled.

"Come on, son. After more than a decade of using MMA gyms as locations to launder money, you really think I haven't picked up a few moves?" Hector remarked.

'Betting' in MMA gyms had been the perfect cover for his cartel to launder money for a few decades now, so Hector had spent more hours in these gyms than he could count. He had met many MMA fighters, some under the cartel's thumb and others not, and in the process, Hector had picked up a few vital skills.

But more important than that was Hector's physical condition. He was only 35, in his physical prime, so he was both stronger and faster than his teenage son. There was a good chance that in the future, Miguel would grow to be stronger than his dad but today was not that day. He was at a severe disadvantage in that regard, and would be forced to rely on his limited karate-based skillset, as well as his undying heart to win the fight.

And that's exactly what Miguel did. With his family and loved ones firmly in his mind, Miguel ducked and weaved around everything his father threw at him, intermittently throwing combinations of his own as he kept his distance from his father's powerful shots. He couldn't lose, not only for his own safety but for all of theirs. Even if Hector didn't know where Laura was, for as long as she was in his custody, she wasn't safe at all.

After several minutes of fighting, an achingly long back and forth that left both of them barely still on their feet, Miguel finally managed to gain the decisive edge in the fight. His passion and determination forced him to keep going, even when his body screamed at him to stop, and it paid off. The back and forth fight between him and his father was essentially a game of chicken, both of them waiting for the other to back down. Well that wasn't going to be Miguel anytime soon. He was never going to quit, not until he won the fight.

It was indeed his father who blinked first. The man made the first and only mistake of the fight: an overextension of his right hand that was caused by his growing fatigue. Hector had been doing most of the attacking in the fight, so even if his strength and stamina was superior to that of his son, Miguel cleverly managed to drain him of all of that by prolonging the length of time the fight ran. The teenager didn't get over-eager and lunge in, risking being caught by a knockout blow from his father. Instead, he waited patiently for his opportunity and sure enough, Miguel was able to use his father's sloppy punch to grab his arm and flip him down to the ground.

Hector was down, Miguel standing victorious over him. And as the adult lay flat on his back, with Miguel sitting all of his weight on top of him, it wasn't so clear who had won the fight. At least, it wasn't to Hector. The 35 year old glanced at Miguel's arm that was pressed against his neck, not quite pushing hard enough to constrict Hector, but enough to pin him to the ground. He chuckled.

"Come on. Do it. Finish me." Hector told him, completely relaxed, despite being fully at Miguel's mercy, his life literally in the hands of the teenager. "But you don't have the stomach for that, do you?"

Hector knew that for a fact, and he turned out to be right. As hard as Miguel pressed down on his neck, the boy didn't move to finish the fight and end his father's life. Hector smirked widely at him.

"Yeah… that's what I thought. You can see it in a man's eyes when they have the strength to properly finish someone. You don't have what it takes. You're weak." Hector spat. "You know what I see in your eyes? Emotion. It's the enemy of strength, son, trust me. It only leads to weakness, and if you continue down this path, it will only lead to your downfall."

Miguel shook his head.

"No. You're wrong. I'm not going to kill you because I'm better than that. Emotion isn't my weakness, it's my strength. I don't believe anyone is so far gone that they deserve to die. Everyone deserves a second chance at life. Even you." Miguel told him. "But if you ever come near me or my family again, you won't get another chance."

Mentioning the word 'family', Miguel remembered Laura, and how he still had no idea where she was. Knowing that his father wasn't going to tell him anything, that the man would rather die than let him know where she was, Miguel knew that it would be up to him to keep looking. He struck his father once more with a punch to render him barely conscious, buying him enough time to get up and take off, looking for his sister.

Once Miguel was gone, a few moments later, Hector slowly rose to his feet, clutching his head and shaking off the pain from the fight that he had just lost, tutting and shaking his head disapprovingly at his son and the boy's decision not to end him where he stood. Miguel had made the wrong choice. He had decided to spare his father, and would soon be paying the price for that decision.

"Idiot." Hector muttered. One thing was for sure: this fight wasn't over…