"Welcome to our first event. I hope you're all well rested and ready for new and unique competition. We call it, 'The Captains War.'"

Today was the first round of the Sekai Taikai. Mackenzie stood in between Miguel and Hawk on the edge of the mat as Gunther announced the competition.

"We told you how important your captains will be. So let's see how well you protect them."

Mackenzie nervously bounced on her toes, her hands twiddling behind her back. Miguel noticed the girls fidgeting and lightly bumped his shoulder into hers, trying to calm her down a bit.

She looked up at Miguel and saw him smiling down at her. When their eyes locked, he nodded his head once, silently telling her she's got this. Mackenzie nodded, more to herself than Miguel, and turned back o Gunther.

"Four dojos will take the mat. Only one will be left standing. If you hit the mat, you're out. If one of your captains hit the mat, your entire team is out for this round." Gunther announced as he raised his hand and gestured to the board with all of the teams behind him. "Check the board to see your group decided by random draw. Group A, you're up."

Mackenzie's eyes followed where Gunther was pointing and she immediately sighed when she saw Miyagi-Do was in Group A with Cobra Kai.

"Cobra Kai, of course." Daniel tiredly breathed out, the rest of the team either groaning, or shaking their heads as they circled up.

"Okay, we've gotta let them come to us." Miguel said firmly. "Protect the egg. Keep Sam and Robby safe." Mackenzie nodded, already shifting her weight in anticipation. Protecting the egg worked with Chozen and it worked when they took down Cobra Kai, it could work now.

But Robby shook his head. "I can be on the front line." He suggested. Mackenzie sarcastically raised her eyebrows, looking to the ground.

Mackenzie raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, because throwing the egg into the fire is a great strategy..." She muttered and Miguel had to hold back a snicker as he nodded. "Kenzie's right. Just stay back and stay focused." He whispered, his words sounding harsher toward the end of his sentence. Robby's face twisted.

"Why wouldn't I be focused?"

Miguel shrugged as if it were obvious.

"You did leave the hotel room last night." Miguel spat and Mackenzie's eyes snapped to Hawk across the circle. The boy shrugged his shoulders, silently telling her he didn't know what Miguel was talking about.

Before Miguel and Robby's uncomfortable conversation could go any further, Johnny and Daniel stepped forward, joining the circle.

"I know it hasn't always been pretty lately, but no one could ever count us out. You hear me? Do it for each other." Daniel said, looking between the seven teens. They all nodded to Daniel before turning to their other sensei. Johnny looked the kids over, a big smile growing on his face. "And wipe the smirks off their ugly faces."

Mackenzie smirked, a small snicker accidentally making its way past her lips. Johnny turned to her at the noise and smiled when he saw Mackenzie nodding.

As soon as the fight started, Tory ran at Miyagi-Do. She headed for the first person she could get to, which just so happened to be Demetri.

Mackenzie looked around the three other teams and her eyes widened when he saw Tory heading right to Demetri.

"Shit! Demetri, look out!" She screamed, but it was too late. By the time Demetri turned around, Tory was right at him and she kicked him in the gut and knocked him to the ground.

"Demetri's out! Protect the egg!" Miguel screamed as the whole team, including Robby and Sam, run to fight. When Mackenzie saw Robby instantly going to fight two people, she groaned. "Robby, stay back!" Mackenzie yelled running towards Robby, jumping up and kicking one of the boys away from him.

Mackenzie ended up knocking the boy to the floor, the other one still fighting Robby. Just as she was about to raise her leg to kick the boy fighting Robby, her eyes moved just past him, her footing faltered when she saw three boys from Falchi Della Notte teaming up on Tory.

"Guys! Protect Sam! We can't have her go down!" Daniel screamed from the sidelines. Mackenzie turned her head to see how Sam was doing and saw the brunette fighting a boy from Cobra Kai. One boy. But three were fighting her sister.

Mackenzie's face hardened as she turned back to Tory and ran for the boys fighting her.

Daniel's eyes widened at Mackenzie completely ignoring his words and instead running to help Tory. "Mackenzie! What are you doing? Protect Sam!" Daniel yelled and Sam, who was still fighting one boy, looked away from her fight to see where Mackenzie was.

"Kenzie!" She yelled, blocking the boys punch aimed at her head. When Sam saw where Mackenzie was running–toward Tory, her eyes widened and her jaw clenched.

When Mackenzie got close enough to the fight, she pushed herself further, spun on her heel, and launched herself into a spinning kick. Her foot connected with one of the boys jaw and he hit the floor almost instantly.

Tory's eyes widened—she didn't expect anyone to help, especially Mackenzie. Their eyes locked for a split second, but the moment was quickly ruined when one of the boys turned his attention to Mackenzie and lunged straight for her.

The boy ran at Mackenzie and she took a barely noticeable step back to get some room to kick him as he ran toward her. When he got close to her, Mackenzie raised her leg, hoping to kick him in the head. Just before her foot could hit him, he hit Mackenzie's leg, throwing it back down.

While Mackenzie tried to regain her footing, the boy kicked his leg out, aiming to hit Mackenzie in the head just like she just tried to do. Mackenzie yelped, bending down and just barely dodging the kick.

Her yelp from dodging the boys kick made Miguel snap his head to her, his eyes wide as he tried to focus on both Mackenzie and his fight.

"Kenz, you good?" Miguel screamed and Mackezie, still pn the floor, placed her hand out behind her and threw her leg out, sweeping the boys leg out from under him. He hit the floor hard and Mackenzie shot back up.

"Yeah!" She yelled back, blowing some hair out of her braids out of her face.

"Miyagi-Do captain down!"

Mackenzie spun around, her eyes wide as she tried to see who got out. Her shoulders slumped and she frowned when she saw Robby on the ground, Kwon standing above him.

Mackenzie's entire body deflated, her shoulders slumping as the pain from all the punches and kicks she got finally hitting her now that her adrenaline was gone. She tried to catch her breath, putting her hands on her hips as her eyes moved to Tory.

Both Nichols girls froze when their eyes met. Tory pushed her shoulders back to look taller than her older sister—which she already was and Mackenzie just stared at her younger sister, the night prior at the aquarium replaying in her head.

"Miyagi-Do is out!"

The voice on the speaker pulled Mackenzie out of her thoughts. She gulped, watching Tory for a few more seconds before she finally turned around and started to walk toward her team.

She stood between Sam and Demetri, turning to watch the fight but Sam beside her suddenly scoffed. "Nice teamwork, Kenzie." She spat. Mackenzie turned to Sam, confused and shocked by her words.

Her eyebrows furrowed as they looked down at Sam and she squinted. "What are you talking about?"

Instead of answering, Sam just rolled her eyes and turned back to the fight. Mackenzie continued to stare at Sam, opening and closing her mouth to try and come up with words because... what? How was she not a team player?

"Falchi Della Notte captain down! They are out. Only Cobra Kai and the Iron Dragons remain alive!" Gunther yelled. Mackenzie looked away from Sam and back to the mat.

Mackenzie's eyes moved across the mat, to the Iron Dragons. Her eyes widened and her lips parted when she saw all seven of them still in the fight and standing in a way that created a small blockade for the captains.

"All of them are still there, right? I'm not seeing things..." Mackenzie whispered, leaning toward Eli right beside her.

She looked up at Demetri and noticed him have the same shocked expression as her. He gently shook his head and blinked in shock.

"How..." He whispered.

Tory, Kwon, and Yoon ran for the seven and in sync, the five in the front row all kneeled. Tory, Kwon, and Yoon all froze, watching as the five stood up and walked off the mat, letting their captains handle the fight.

Mackenzie's eyes bounced back and forth between Tory fighting the female captain and Axel fighting the two Cobra Kai boys.

She watched in a mix of awe and shock as Axel took Yoon down immediately and at the same time, he and his co-caption knocked Tory and Kwon to the ground, not even breaking a sweat.

Mackenzie watched the two of them bask in the audiences cheers. As Axel spun around to look at all the audience in the room, his eyes landed on Miyagi-Do and almost immediately, Axel's gaze found hers.

His shoulders dropped slightly, his attention completely off of the audience now as he watched Mackenzie. It was only a few seconds, but it felt like minutes to Mackenzie. Then, as if he was snapping himself awake, Axel blinked. His jaw tightened and he turned away from Mackenzie, focusing back on the audience cheering for him and for some reason, it made Mackenzie's stomach twist.

...

Mackenzie told herself that her team only struggled because it was the first round. Everyone was getting used to fighting new people with new techniques.

But then Miyagi-Do started losing just about every fight they faced.

By the next day, Mackenzie had little to no hope that her team would actually win the Sekai Taikai. They walked into the hotel after another round went horribly wrong, Mackenzie clutching her side in pain after she got kicked in the ribs by one of the Iron Dragons.

She groaned with every step she took, her hands clutching her aching sides. All Mackenzie wanted to do was go back to her bedroom, lay in bed, and watch Modern Family until she'd knock out from lack of sleep or completely entertain drainage.

"Everyone, listen up!" Daniel's voice cut through Mackenzie's thoughts about getting to her hotel room. She stopped walking and before she turned around to face Daniel, Mackenzie rolled her eyes. When she did turn to her senseis, Daniel had an encouraging smile on his face,

"These past few events have been... rough, but let's not get discouraged just yet. We have two more events today and eliminations don't even begin till the second one." Daniel encouraged and from beside Mackenzie, Demetri, who was just as tired as Mackenzie was, shot up and stared at Daniel with wide eyes.

"Woah, woah, woah. If that wasn't the elimination round, then what is? Getting our heads cut off with swords?" Demetri shrieked and Mackenzie sighed, looking up at him. She crossed her arms over her chest as Demetri's head snapped to her.

"I wouldn't be surprised... That last fight was brutal." She muttered, looking up to Demetri with the same look he held.

Daniel sighed at Demetri and Mackenzie's comments. "We knew this wasn't gonna be easy. We're going up against the best dojos in the world, but don't forget you guys are one of them too." He reminded. Mackenzie's eyes softened. After how horrible they had been doing, Mackenzie definitely needed to hear that.

"Yeah, so you better start fighting like it." Johnny cut in. Mackenzie blinked, thrown off by the difference in their motivational speeches. Daniel shot Johnny a look, as if he were insane.

"Johnny, come on, man." He breathed out, scolding the man before he turned back to the students. "The best thing you can do right now is just clear your minds, get some rest, put this behind you. You got this, all right ? I believe in you."

Mackenzie smiled at her senseis, nodding her head. A huge yawn slipped past her lips, and she quickly covered her mouth before either of the senseis could comment on it and call her disrespectful. She turned and started to walk toward the elevators, hearing Demetri complain to Miguel as they followed behind her.

...

Mackenzie knew deep down she shouldn't have taken a nap because now, she was late for the next competition.

She sped through the halls to get to the arena, fumbling with her bag to try and throw her phone into one of the pockets so she didn't have it on her while she fought. As she zipped her backpack closed, Mackenzie passed a doorway and her steps hesitated when she saw it was Axel still training with his sensei.

Mackenzie stopped in the doorway, peeking her head in to watch as he threw punches at his sensei's gloved hands.

Axel's sensei dropped his arms, an angry look on his face. "Stop." His sensei ordered and Axel's hands shook a little as he dropped his fists. Mackenzie's eyebrows furrowed. She didn't see anything wrong with how he was punching. Then suddenly, his sensei hit Axel on the side of his head.

Mackenzie's breath hitched and her stomach sank as she took a small step back so neither of them would see her. Her heart was beating so fast, she was a little scared they could hear it.

"What are you doing wrong?" The sensei asked and instead of letting Axel answer, he raised his hands again.

Axel hesitated for a second, getting into his fighting stance and throwing another punch. His sensei nodded, his face still holding that same glare. Mackenzie couldn't tell if he was mad, or just naturally had an angry look on his face when he relaxed

"Again."

Axel tried again and when he just barely missed the glove and hit the air, Mackenzie was sure her racing heart stopped completely. Every instinct screamed at her to step in before anything could happen, but this man was terrifying.

She opened her eyes just as Axel's sensei took off his glove and hit Axel three more times. Mackenzie flinched as he bent away from his sensei's hits. She stared down at Axel, her breaths shaking. When his sensei stopped, Axel waited for a few moments before he slowly opened his eyes and looked up.

And they landed right on Mackenzie.

Mackenzie was sure she'd stopped breathing when their eyes met. She wanted to run in—her foot shifted forward—but Axel saw it.

He shook his head frantically, he just barely stopped himself from opening his mouth and telling her to stop. Mackenzie froze and her face fell at the desperate look in Axel's eyes. She didn't want to leave, but Axel seemed too adamant about her staying back and she knew that her team was already inside waiting for her.

Mackenzie's stomach churned as she looked back and forth between Axel and the hallway before walking away and heading straight for her team in the arena.

"In this final points round, competitors will try to knock their opponents once their platforms. Once you have fallen, you're out. Points are determined off of wins, losses, and time. Final rankings after this event will determine placement in tonight's elimination round." Echoed over the speakers as Mackenzie ran to her team.

When she made it to her group, her nose scrunched when she didn't see Daniel anywhere.

Johnny noticed a body join their group huddle and turned his head. When he saw that it was Mackenzie finally showing up, he threw his hands out tiredly, shaking his head. "Where the hell were you, Nichols?"

Mackenzie was about to answer, but just as she was about to speak, everyone on her team looked at her. Mackenzie blinked at all the eyes on her and shook her head nervously. "I got lost. It won't happen again. I'm sorry."

Johnny sighed. Mackenzie had never been late before and as horrible as it sounded, she wasn't captain so he didn't really care. He shook his head, waving off the girls nerves. "It's fine." He turned to look at everyone now and clapped his hands to get everyones attention. "All right. 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 them off first."

Mackenzie frowned. She looked back at the platforms and squinted. There was no way they could attack on those narrow platforms. They were gonna need Miyagi-Do for this round, not Eagle Fang.

Mackenzie turned to her sensei, shaking her head, but before she could speak, Sam cut in. "Those platforms are really narrow. My dad would want balance." Sam said and Johnny scoffed.

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

"Sora Haruto from Kirobukan on platform one. Devon Lee from Miyagi-Do on platform two." The announcers voice echoed from up above. Mackenzie looked to Devon beside her in the circle and saw the younger girl almost as pale as a ghost at the fact that she was first.

Mackenzie patted the girls back, pulling her out of her thoughts. "You got this, Dev." She whispered to Devon quietly as Devon blinked rapidly, trying to calm herself down.

Shakily, Devin walked toward the platform she was called onto and as soon as the fight started, the girl Devon was fighting immediately started to attack. Devon stuck with blocking and defending. She was holding her ground pretty well until Johnny started screaming.

Devon had a second to look back at Johnny and nodded. She turned back to the girl she was fighting and spun, throwing her leg out to kick her. The girl ducked and because of how narrow the platforms, Devon stumbled. The girl smirked, kicking Devon and knocking her off the platform.

"Dammit!" Mackenzie whispered, her hands going to the side of her head.

"Lee out. Time, ten seconds."

Devon walked back towards her team with her head down and Johnny huffed. "We need to do better. You all need to step up. Let's do this!" He screamed.

As time went on, Miyagi-Do's continued to get called up and just like Devon, they started with Miyagi-Do techniques until Johnny started to yell at them.

Everyone lasted at least over a minute, and Mackenzie, Hawk, and Miguel were able to knock their opponents off the platform. Miyagi-Do's record over lasting pretty long for the fight lasted until Robby got kicked off his platform.

"Keene out! Forty-five seconds."

By the end of the round, Miyagi-Do moved to twelfth place. Sure, Mackenzie was bummed, but she wasn't necessarily mad at anyone on the team specifically. They were all frazzled by Johnny's yells.

She mindlessly started to follow her team out of the arena, and she winced at the massive headache she was starting to get from her high ponytail.

"Hey! Where the hell do you think you're going?" Johnny yelled and the seven students stopped.

Mackenzie started to pull the hair-tie out of her hair as Demetri looked down at himself and cringed. "Back to the hotel to wash off this disgrace." He muttered.

Johnny shook his head, an angry look on his face. "You're not getting off that easy. Locker room. Now."

He turned and started walking toward the locker room and the teens trailed behind him silently, too nervous to make any noise.

Johnny walked in first and stood in the dead center of the room. He raised his arm and passive aggressively signaled for them all to sit down on the benches.

Mackenzie sat on the edge of the bench directly in front of Johnny. Eli sat down next to her, then Miguel, and then Robby. She leaned back against the lockers, bringing her legs up so she could rest her arms on her knees.

"What I saw from you just now, it wasn't karate. It was weakness! You fought like little lambs waiting for slaughter. We keep going like this, we get eliminated tonight!" Johnny yelled and Mackenzie looked down to the ground, her eyebrows raising.

It sounded like somebody was projecting.

"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." Johnny spat as he started to pace in front of the seven teens. "And you're gonna go on to live shit lives in shitty apartments with shit jobs. And always have to live with this failure!"

Mackenzie looked up at the lights above her. They were starting to hurt a little from how bright they were, but she didn't want to look Johnny in the eyes, not when he was going on some rampage.

"So if you wanna save some humiliation, why don't we just skip the next round and catch the next flight home?" Johnny yelled, and Mackenzie finally looked at him.

He shook his head, and as if all of his anger came out with his yelling, and he now only had disappointment. "What is wrong with you guys? Where's your fight? Aren't you gonna stand up for yourselves."

"It's not all our fault." Sam blurted. Mackenzie turned away from Johnny and to her.

"You keep blaming us like this isn't on you too! If my dad had been there, we never would've lost like this." Sam defended and even though part of Mackenzie wanted to roll her eyes out of pure habit, she held herself back.

In her eyes, it didn't matter if Daniel was there or not. The team just needed to have some common sense. If you're standing on a narrow platform, maybe focus on balance, not attacking,

"Yeah, well he wasn't there." Johnny sassed back.

"Probably because of you!" Sam yelled and Mackenzie's eyes widened as she turned back down to her knees pulled to her chest. "You keep disrespecting him, trying to prove your way is better, when it's so clear that we should be using Miyagi-Do. You shouldn't even be wearing that gi." Sam spat.

Devon suddenly shot out of her seat on the bench to the right of Mackenzie. She got right in Sam's face and Mackenzie, who was sitting closest to Sam, quickly scooted away from her and closer to Hawk.

"Hey! Don't talk about my sensei like that!" Devon screamed and Sam raised her eyebrows, her arms crossing over her chest as she took a step closer to Devon. "Your sensei got you knocked off the board in ten seconds so I would sit down if I were you! You're not helping us! I don't even know how you made this team!"

Mackenzie watched as all of the confidence Devon had yelling at Sam disappear in seconds. She felt bad for the girl as she sat back down and stared at the ground in embarrassment.

Johnny took a small step closer to the kids and stuck a hand out toward Devon, his eyes glued on Sam. "Hey, it's not just about today, LaRusso. Even in that team challenge, you guys didn't work with each other!" Johnny yelled and Sam took another step toward the man.

"How are we supposed to work with each other if we don't trust our own team to have our backs? How are we supposed to make sure our teammates don't switch sides halfway through?" Sam yelled defensively. As the words left her mouth, her gaze flickered to Mackenzie on the bench to her left.

Mackenzie stiffened, her jaw tightening. Was Sam seriously implying what she thought she was?

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Mackenzie yelled, her eyes wide as she pushed herself up from the bench. Sam turned to Mackenzie just as the blonde reached her height. Mackenzie glared at Sam with an angry squint "What? You're mad I didn't help you fight one kid?"

Sam took a step toward her, throwing her arm out toward the exit of the locker room to gesture to the arena. "You helped Tory when she was cornered!"

"Yeah, because she was cornered! Do you even hear yourself?" Mackenzie shot back, dragging out the word as if she had to spell it out for Sam. Mackenzie looked to Demetri and Devon on the bench in front of her and pointed at them "Plus, it's not like I got someone on our own team out!"

Sam raised her eyebrows, crossing her arms over her chest tightly. She tilted her head slightly, eyes narrowing. "How do we know you won't do that, though? You chose Tory over your team already in this fight. Who's to say you won't leave the team to join her?" Sam yelled as if Mackenzie had already done this before–accusing her.

Mackenzie's face twisted into a mix of shock and anger. Her eyebrows furrowed and she pointed to herself. "You really think I'd go back to Cobra Kai? You think I like her being on that team with those psychos?" Mackenzie yelled and from the center of the locker room, Johnny's eyes widened.

"Nichols–"

"I've proven my loyalty already time and time again!" Mackenzie snapped, interrupting Johnny. "But what? It's still not enough for you?" She yelled as she took another step toward Sam, close enough that if one of them took another step forward, their noses would almost touch.

Sam's eyes widened slightly, her lips parting, but Mackenzie didn't give her the chance to respond.

"I break my hand trying to get all of Silver's secret moves, I put our past aside and join your team, I help you take down Cobra Kai. I saved you when you and Tory were fighting Kim at the dojo—" Her voice faltered for half a second before she kept going on, holding her hand out to count everything she was listing. "And now you don't trust me? Because I didn't help you fight one guy?"

The last part came out quieter, almost as if she was judging Sam and Sam swallowed, shifting on her feet. Mackenzie let out a breath and licked her teeth to keep herself somewhat grounded.

She took the smallest step toward Sam, getting right in the brunettes face as she raised her eyebrows almost tauntingly. "If you're gonna whine and complain about not getting help fighting one person by yourself, maybe you shouldn't be captain."

Sam's jaw clenched at that, but Mackenzie didn't care. Her nostrils flared as she turned around and stormed toward the door, ignoring Johnny and Hawk both trying to stop her.

emily speaks...
finally figured out how i want this fic to end so expect more frequent chapters😼😼😼(famous last words)

also im like... 95% sure im using them right but i love using em dashes sm LIKE THEYRE SO FUN TO USE

ANYWHOOO MORE MAXEL COMING SOOON🥳🥳