Cyborg MMA

The day passed by slower than usual as Michael couldn't wait till his wrist felt better and for him to go see the gym where Jack worked at.

After 2 weeks have passed since the incident, Michael's wrist finally healed.

Coming back from school on a Friday the kids would take their stuff into their rooms and do whatever they would like until dinner time.

This would be the most chaotic time in the orphanage as there would be kids running around all over the place.

Michael went around and looked for Ms. Jones to ask her of being able to go see the gym where Jack worked at.

Searching for a while he found her coming out of the bathroom.

He was too excited and jumped out of nowhere to sprung his question forward, "Ms. Jones!"

"Ahh!" shouted Ms. Jones as she was surprised by him jumping in front of her.

"Haha did I scare you? But before that, I'm ready to go to the gym that Jack talked about," asked Michael.

"That's great to hear that you want to go, but next time just walk up to me and not scare me. Though I'll call him and see whenever he's free," said Ms. Jones.

"Ok thanks," replied Michael as he was walking away making his way towards the direction of the library.

Arriving at the library there was also another kid in there reading a picture book. Michael waved at him and looked for the book he read the day before.

Finding the book again he went to the spot he always read at and that was a table by the corner of the room.

He sat down and read his book, "Ancient Herbal Medicine" the book was about how those in the past used herbs and materials found in the wild was used to cover and clean open wounds.

A lot of other kids would barge in and do what kids do, but Michael paid them no mind and continued reading his book.

A while later something tapped his left shoulder.

Michael still not finished with the sentence quickly read the remaining word in the sentence before he answered in a whisper, "What?" as he looked over to see Jack.

His face had a giant smile as he realized who was there.

Jack smile back and whispered to Michael, "If you want to go see the gym we can right now."

"Ok, let me put this book away" replied Michael as he quickly put the book back where he found it.

The two walked past the front desk worker as Jack and Ms. Jones already signed the paper stating where Jack was gonna take Michael.

( Thump! )

Michael shuts his car door sitting in the back seat opposite of Jack who was driving the car.

Heading towards the gym Jack tries to spark up a conversation, "You were pretty focused reading that book what book were you reading?"

"It's a book about how people back then before advanced medicine clean and treated open wounds," replied Michael.

"Pretty serious stuff there, I hear you read a lot you enjoy it?" asked Jack.

"I enjoy it since there isn't much to do otherwise," replied Michael

The two had a conversion before arriving at the gym, which was about a 25-30 minute drive. Jack parked the car and the two arrived at the gym Jack worked at.

"Behold Cyborg Mixed Martial Arts Gym!" said Jack dramatically as he open the door to the gym.

The gym was a pretty big gym on the outskirts of the city a few miles away from the orphanage.

As you walk in you're greeted by the front desk worker and an area filled with workout equipment.

Michael was in awe of everything as he has never seen a gym or gym equipment and only read about them in some of the health and wellness articles he reads from time to time.

After walking past all of that you walk past a door into a hallway where the locker rooms are located, "These are the locker rooms separated by genders, if you keep going forward is where it gets cool."

The two arrived at a door a little past the locker rooms, "and this, this is where you get battle-tested." said Jack as he opened the door.

"You gotta keep your hands up!" shouted a man as two guys were fighting in a cage with gloves and head protection on.

Jack looks at Michael and says "This is the training room where we train Muay Thai, BJJ, Wrestling, and Boxing."

Michael looked around as there were a lot of people there. The room was big with padded floors all over and a cage by the end of the other side of the room. The room was filled with gloves and equipment used for protection. There was also thing used to help train like heavy bags and water bags.

"Hey, there coach Jack, who's the kid?" asked a girl who was hitting the heavy bags.

"He's someone I want the boss to see, actually can you watch him for a second while I find the boss?" Jack asked the lady.

"Sure" replied the lady.

Jack looked at Michael and told him, "She'll show you around she a good lady, I'll be back I just gotta go talk to someone." before walking out the door.

( Clack! )

The door shut and Michael walked over to the lady. He looked around counting the number of people. He concluded that there were about 13 people there including the guy who looked like he was coaching the two guys in the cage.

Michael sticks out his hand to shake the woman's hand before introducing himself, "Hi my name is Michael and Jack is showing me around.".

"My name is Emily," the girl replied.

Emily was a pretty-looking girl with long hair tied back into a ponytail.

"I'll show you around do you know anything about combat sports?" asked Emily

Michael not knowing anything shook his head no.

"That's fine" smiled Emily as she replied to Michael's head nod.

Emily showed all the equipment in the room one by one and explained what they were used for.

Michael's favorite was the water bags as they looked funny and jiggled as it was hit.

Showing him around Emily noticed Michael kept looking back into the cage where others were sparring.

"That should be it, that should be all you need to know. So why don't we introduce you to coach Ridder."

The two walked up to the cage and Emily shouted, "Hey coach Ridder we got a newbie!".

Coach Ridder was a scary-looking guy with tattoos coving up his whole body. He walked down the platform which was around the cage towards Michael and Emily.

"Hey there kid," said coach Ridder with a big smile as he squatted down to meet Michael at an eye level.

Michael introduced himself as he was shaking coach Ridder's hand, "My name is Michael,"

"Nice to meet you Michael, my name is Ridder, you can just call me coach Ridder. Quite the strong handshake you have there I thought my hand was about to break haha," said coach Ridder.

Ridder noticed how interested Michael was in the sparring match as he was staring at it, "Do you want to go up and watch?" insinuating for Michael to walk up to the platform with him.

Coach Ridder gestured for Michael to follow him up as he walked up to the platform, "Come on, you can see better up here,".

Michael slowly walked up, each step that he took to get closer to the fighters in the cage the louder the noise was when each punch and kick landed.

( Smack! )

The kicks were amplified because of the shinguard the fighters were wearing.

Coach Ridder looked over to explain what they were doing, to Michael, "This is what we call sparring, what they're doing is improving their Muay Thai by fighting each other. Sparring is for improving and not winning,".

"Sparring is for improving not winning," Michael said to himself to make a mental note.

He watched until the end of the spar. He couldn't stop watching as he saw each fighter trade quality hits.

( Clunk! )

The door to the training room opened and Jack walked in with an older guy who looked to be in his 50s or 60s.