The next day Sky didn't feel like a phoenix. She felt like a pigeon that had been hit by a garbage truck.

She felt like shit - feverish and aching all over and she barely managed to get out of the bed. When she undressed her nightshirt, she cried out with pain - the fabric had gotten stuck to the tattoo, and even if she peeled the shirt off as gently as she could, it still felt like flaying off the skin.

"Crap," she muttered when taking a look at her shoulder.

This was her first tattoo, but she was pretty sure it shouldn't look like this. The whole area was red and swollen and leaking blood and other fluids.

Dad was not happy.

"How could you be so stupid?" He asked angrily when he was driving her home from the doctor's appointment. "Didn't you get any after-care instructions?"

"I did," Sky replied, feeling utterly rotten. The doctor had ordered antibiotics, but even if she had taken the first dose already, she knew it would take some time before she'd feel any better.

"Then why didn't you follow them?"

Sky looked at her hands which were folded on her lap. "Because Sensei said he'd kick me out of the team if I didn't do my part."

Dad glanced at her with an angry frown. "What does that even mean? Do your part in what?"

"We had this thing–" Sky started telling - but at the last moment she remembered Sensei had told them not to tell their parents about the cement truck. "This... outdoors exercise. You know, building team spirit."

Dad gave a dissatisfied grunt. "As much as I support you doing karate, I think this is too much. Did you tell Sensei Lawrence about the tattoo?"

"Yeah."

"And he still forced you to participate?"

"It's not like he forced me," Sky muttered, which was technically true. Sensei had let her take a break. It had been Kreese to convince her she had to do her part.

"You just said he threatened to kick you out of the team." Dad stated.

"That was just talk. You know how he is."

"No, actually I don't know." Dad said. He parked the car in front of their home and turned to look at Sky with a frown. "I think it's high time I had a word with him."

That thought was utterly mortifying. Sky felt like she could puke.

Dad wasn't an overprotective ass like some fathers. He was usually pretty chill, and Sky had always been more or less free to do what she liked. Dad had never tried to ban things from her - she had always been free to listen to whatever music she liked, to dress the way she liked, to pick any hobby that made her happy, and so on - as long as she stayed safe.

But if Sky got hurt - Dad turned into a lion.

She recognized that look in his eyes now, and knew it was futile to argue. She wasn't the only stubborn one in this family. If Dad wanted to have a word with Sensei, he would - and Sky could only hope it wouldn't end with bloodshed.

Still, she tried. "Dad, please. It's not Sensei's fault that I'm an idiot."

"No, but he is the adult and he should have acted like one," Dad said, his strong hands still gripping the steering wheel even if the car was stopped. "Now, go inside, take your meds and try to rest. I'll be home soon."

With a sour face and a somber spirit, Sky stepped out of the car and watched Dad drive away, before pulling her phone from her pocket and calling Hawk.

The bell chimed when Nicholas stepped into the dojo.

He kicked off his shoes before entering, squared his shoulders and looked around.

It wasn't his first time in here. He had brought Sky to the dojo many times, or picked her up, had seen how happy she was to run in and meet her friends, had seen how she had returned home from this place all sweaty and exhausted, but full of pride and self-respect - both things Nicholas strongly felt she needed.

He knew Sensei Lawrence was a tough man, that he sometimes taught the kids with rather unorthodox methods and used harsh language - but before today he had never doubted if the man had Sky's best interest in mind. He knew that Sky respected her sensei, and Sky's respect wasn't easily gained.

So maybe the issue was just some kind of a misunderstanding. Or maybe Sky wasn't telling him everything. This or that, Nicholas was rather optimistic that if he just talked it through with Sensei Lawrence, they could find a common ground.

After all, they both wanted what was best for Sky.

"Anybody here?" he called when walking in, and stopping in front of the big, loud letters on the wall. "Sensei Lawrence?"

"Can I help you?" A harsh, low voice came from the shadows, and Nicholas turned to look.

"Sensei Lawrence?"

But the man who walked into the main dojo wasn't Johnny Lawrence. Nicholas knew for a fact that he had never seen this man before - and that he would remember that grim, raw face if they had met.

He was wearing a pair of worn jeans and a black T-shirt that had seen better days, a flannel thrown over it, but there was something about him that made Nicholas straighten his back when their eyes met - a looming sense of danger.

"Sensei Lawrence is... unavailable." That man said slowly with a smile that wasn't a smile.

"And you are?" Nicholas asked.

"His... associate." The man rubbed his hands together in slow, deliberate moves. "Sensei Kreese."

Nicholas took that in - his words, the tone in which they were said, the look in the older man's cold, calculating eyes - and he didn't like any of it. He didn't like the way that man stood on the mat as if he owned it, and briefly, he wondered if Johnny Lawrence knew how his 'associate' ran the place when he wasn't there.

But that wasn't really his business at all. He had come here to talk, but that had now turned into delivering a message. Either way, he knew trouble when he saw it.

"An associate?" he asked and took a wide stance as if it was just the way he always stood.

He wasn't really expecting this conversation to turn into a fight - he didn't live in a world where those kinds of things happened on a daily basis - but he also recognized the real threat of violence that hung in the air around this man, and he wasn't going to take any chances.

"Who are you?" Kreese asked. "And what do you want?"

"I'm Doctor O'Brian," Nicholas said. "Sky's father."

"The Champion's dad?"

Kreese's light blue eyes glanced at him from head to toe, taking in the lack of shoes, his plain, black jeans, the T-shirt with a picture of a gladiator's helmet, his blond hair, his glasses, his thin and lean frame that didn't easily give away the hours spent at the gym.

"Yes," he replied straightforwardly. "You've met her?"

"I have," Kreese said slowly, observing his knuckles as if they deserved more attention than Nicholas. "Yesterday. She is a... resourceful young woman."

Nicholas didn't like the way he said that. It was as if he wasn't talking about a person but a thing, a new car or a useful pair of boots. Like Sky was something he owned and thought would be fun to play with. Not in a sexual sense, perhaps, (if it had sounded like that, Nicholas would have already started throwing punches), but still something in Kreese's tone chilled Nicholas to the bone and he tensed.

Sensei Lawrence never would have said something like that. When they had shortly met a couple of times, he had said things like "Ginger is a tough girl" or "She can kick ass" which, even if a bit odd, was at least honest. Nicholas didn't think there was an honest bone in the body of the man who stood in front of him now.

"So you were there yesterday? When Sky trained and got sweaty and dirty in this weather with an open wound on her shoulder?"

"Ah. So you know about her tattoo."

"Of course, I know. She is my daughter. We talk."

Kreese made a low chuckle. "These young women of today. Getting tattoos, piercings, all that. In my day women didn't do such things. I must admit that it takes some getting used to."

"I didn't come here to talk about that." Nicholas grunted. His hands that he had kept on his sides clenched into fists.

"Then why did you come, Doctor O'Brian?"

That's when Nicholas realized whom he was talking to.

This man wasn't a Sensei. This man wasn't a teacher. He wasn't even the old Vietnam War veteran he probably liked people to see when they looked at him (it wasn't hard to guess, Kreese was the right age, and he had the look of a man who had killed).

No, this man was nothing but a bully. And this wasn't the first time Nicholas was facing one. His childhood years in a boys-only boarding school in England had taught him many things about bullies.

The first one was that you should never let them see you were scared.

The second one was to strike hard and run fast. Nicholas, who had always been good at both of those things, was now wondering which one would be the wiser strategy with Kreese.

He took a deep breath and met Kreese's eyes with his unfaltering stare.

"I came here to tell Sensei Lawrence that I had to take Sky to the doctor's today. The tattoo is infected, and she's on antibiotics. So she won't be attending any lessons for two weeks, on doctor's orders."

Kreese pushed his hands into the pockets of his worn jeans, lifted his chin, and gave one of those smiles that felt like a threat. Nicholas kept his stare without flinching.

"Alright," Kreese replied slowly. "I shall deliver the message."

"I sure hope so. And I advise you to stay the Hell away from my daughter."

"Is that a threat?" Kreese asked, clearly amused. It was obvious he didn't consider Nicholas to be one.

"I don't know." he replied coolly. "Does it need to be?"

Kreese's only reply was a low, dry laughter that told of years and years of too many smokes and too much whisky. It followed Nicholas out, and he couldn't shake it off even when sitting back in his car and driving home.

He had a bad feeling about this.

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