chapter six !
❪ a team that is crumbling apart ❫

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"IN THIS final points round," the woman began. "Competitors will try to knock their opponents off their platforms. Once you have fallen, you are out."

"Points are determined off of wins, losses, and time. Final rankings after this event will determine placement in tonight's elimination round. We will now call up the first group of fighters."

"All right, listen up." Maddie looked at the small and low platform that they had to compete on. "Looks like I'm taking charge, so we're doing things differently. No more waiting around like scared little bitches, waiting for them to come to you."

"All right? You go at them. Aggressive. Knock 'em off first." Johnny told them.

Sam furrowed her eyebrows. "Those platforms are pretty narrow. My dad would want balance."

"Yeah, well, your dad's not here. All right?" Johnny snarled. "It's time for us to start scoring points."

"Sora Haruto from Hirobukan on platform one. Devon Lee from Miyagi-Do on platform two."

Maddie watched as the young girl grew nervous and stepped onto the platform. "You got this, Lee. Be aggressive!" Johnny encouraged.

"Come on, Devon!" Miguel added.

Miyagi-Do observed the fight between their teammate and their opponent. It was easy to lose your balance on the platform and that's what happened with Devon.

She spun on her foot to throw a kick but lost some balance, causing her opponent to land a kick on her from behind. Devon fell off, Maddie sighing.

"Lee out. Time, ten seconds."

Devon stood up in frustration. Johnny gave her a slight disappointed look. "We need to do better. Let's go. After that, you all need to step up, all right?"

Before Miguel's match, Miyagi-Do was losing. Hawk lost his match. Demetri lost his. Robby got too distracted and also fell off the platform, also losing his match.

Sam and Maddie were the only ones that won theirs.

It was Miguel's turn for his. "You got this!" Maddie yelled as the boy stood on the platform.

Miguel's opponent was way more muscular than him, causing some struggle in the fight. But Miguel came through and was able to land a knee onto the man's chest, causing him to fall off the low platform.

The buzzer blared and Maddie clapped. "Phan out. Time, forty seconds."

Johnny's eyes were focused on the screen. "Sensei?" Miguel lifted up his arms for his attention. "Sensei, did you see that knee?"

"It's too little, too late man. We're near the bottom of the standings. There's nothing to celebrate here."

"What?"

Maddie and the others stood up in defeat. "Hey! Where the hell you think you're going?" Johnny walked up to his students.

"Back to the hotel to wash off this disgrace?" Demetri frowned.

"You're not getting off that easy. Locker room. Now."

Maddie stomped her way towards the locker room, the teens following behind her in annoyance. They sat on the benches, their heads lowered.

Johnny walked in and glared at them.

"What I saw from you just now. It was weakness. You fought like little lambs waiting for slaughter. We keep going like this, we get eliminated tonight. Some of you will put this behind you. But some of you are gonna carry this for the rest of your lives!"

"Knowing you had this chance to make something of yourselves. But instead, you crumbled under pressure. And you're gonna go on to live shit lives in shitty apartments with shit jobs. And always have to live with this failure."

"So if you wanna save some humiliation, why don't we just skip the next round and catch the next flight home?"

Everyone stood quiet. "What is wrong with you guys? Where's your fight? Aren't you gonna stand up for yourselves?"

Sam rolled her eyes with her arms crossed. "You keep blaming us like this isn't on you too. If my dad had been there, we never would've lost like that."

"Yeah, well, he didn't show up."

"Probably because of you! You keep disrespecting him, trying to prove your way is better, when it's so clear that we should've been using Miyagi-Do!"

Johnny glanced down in guilt. "You shouldn't even be wearing that gi," Sam added.

Devon slammed her fist on the locker beside her and abruptly stood up. "Hey! Don't talk to my sensei like that."

"Your sensei got you knocked off the board in ten seconds so I would sit down if I were you." Sam snapped at the teen. "You're not helping us. I don't even know how you made this team."

Devon blinked, shocked by her words. She sat down and Maddie scoffed. "The switch up is crazy," she murmured.

Sam snapped her head towards the blonde. "What was that? If you have something to say you can say it to my face."

Maddie stood up and faced the girl. "I said," she said with a higher tone. "'The switch up is crazy.'" Maddie repeated.

"You were begging your dad to use Eagle-Fang style for the All Valley and now you want to use Miyagi-Do?" Maddie furrowed her eyebrows.

"And by the way, my dad agreed with your dad to be here as 'Miyagi-Do' because he's trying to be the bigger person while your dad is too busy honoring some dead guy's legacy."

Sam's mouth gapped open at the girl's words. "I don't want to hear anything from a girl who is hooking up with our enemy!" She called out.

Maddie's face went red. "Yeah. I saw you two outside of your room!" Sam admitted.

"The hell you talking about?" Johnny inquired.

"She's been hooking up with Kwon!" The LaRusso girl pointed out.

"What?!" Robby looked at his sister in surprise. Maddie glanced around, seeing shock on her teammates faces.

She glared at Sam and let out a bitter chuckle. "What? Are you mad that you didn't get to sleep with him first?" She taunted. "I know you have a habit of wanting things that aren't yours such as being female captain."

Sam scoffed. "Everyone knows that I should be captain instead!"

"No they don't! Right guys?" Maddie turned around and looked at her friends to see if they were going to back her up on this one.

But nobody said anything. "Is that what you all think?" Maddie threw her hands in the air.

Miguel scratched his head awkwardly at the silence. She scoffed at the no response, "I've been getting the most points for this team!"

"Me too!" Sam added.

Maddie whipped her head back around to glare at the girl, about to put her hands on her. "You bit–"

"Enough!" She felt someone pulling her away from Sam before anything can escalate.

"Everyone calm down!" Johnny yelled.

Maddie pushed Hawk away from her out of anger. "Well," Demetri began. "I, for one, will be putting all of this behind me when I'm off to MI–"

"Shut the fuck up about MIT!" Hawk snapped. "Some of us care about winning the tournament. Be nice if you did too."

"Guys, can we just cool it?" Robby spoke up. "This isn't helping. We need to focus up."

"Maybe you should listen to your own advice," Miguel murmured, looking down.

Robby turned his head with raised eyebrows. "Got something to say?"

The Diaz boy looked at the male captain. "I already did." With those words leaving his mouth, he stood up to walk away.

"Hey, I'm not finished."

"No offense, Sensei, but I'm pretty sure we've heard enough from you."

The students walked out as they followed Miguel, while Maddie and Robby stayed behind with their dad for a minute.

"Thanks for having my back." Sarcasm rolled off her tongue as she got up, taking off her captain headband to shove inside her duffel bag before storming out of the locker room.

"Mads," Johnny mumbled but she was already gone.

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mars speaks!

i fear maddie ate up that argument-

and she's gonna come after everyones throat because they all fake as hell for not speaking up like... bye.

no kwon content this chapter but there will be in the next one! 😘

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