Dan Green sipped his coffee slowly as he stood on the balcony and watched the sun come up. It was a monumental day, years in the making, the moment he'd been waiting for ever since the night he announced his retirement. The day that Green's MMA Academy would officially open.

It was a tremendous undertaking, that was for sure. To even locate a suitable property was challenging enough, but he had persevered and now, finally, his dream was coming to fruition. In the woodlands of rural Ontario, hours away from any sign of civilization, the Academy stood. An immense property dedicated to nothing more than the complete reinvention of MMA. He was giddy with excitement over finally opening the doors and showing his first class around.

Later...

Jason Green was just finishing a light jog around the exterior of the Academy, as he rounded the corner to the front of the training center, he noticed Alex Slade, his father's longtime training partner and close friend emerging from the front door.
"Morning Jason" the Brit smiled in greeting "Hang around for a minute, will ya? The bus is gonna be here with the others in a moment"

Sure enough, within a few seconds, the rumbling of an engine met Jason's ears. Before long, the bus rolled into view and slowed to a stop in front of the training center. Alex stepped on board and bellowed out.
"Hello everyone! Please leave your bags and just make your way on inside the training complex. Mr. Green wants to say a few words. The staff will carry your things on over to the dormitory, you'll collect them there. Thank you"

A military WW2 backpack his grandad gave him? Check. A tin of mama's famous spaghetti alla carbonara? Check. Enough clothes to make it appear he had a wardrobe? Check. The hottest playlist this side of the tracks? Check.

Miami was hot and humid even at 2am, but that's the only time the greyhound to transfer him to the bus to Ontario was leaving. Lugging a stuffed backpack, Paul stepped on the bus. He was dressed in a red ballcap, khaki shorts, his favorite white shoes, and a retro local MMA tournament T-shirt. Not to mention some simple earbuds in his ears with 'easy listening' music playing. Paul found a seat alone quickly, put his bag on the seat next to him and drifted asleep.

Now...

After one hell of a bus journey and only 4 full playlist replays Paul had arrived. Destiny, an opportunity, the beginning of the chance of a life time was in his reach. He wasn't going to waste it. Paul eagerly put down his backpack and earbuds and quickly made his way into the training complex. That 40 hour bus ride made him antsy and this was the place to relieve that stress.

Delilah had her head resting on the window, her mind distracted by the music blasting through the headphones. For the moment being, there was no outside world--just her and the sweet melody of one of her favorite instrumentals. But when the bus slowed before coming to a complete stop, she hit pause on her phone and sat up, looking outside the window to notice a couple of guys waiting on the bus' arrival. Her heart rate increased just the slightest, mainly because she wasn't entirely sure what to expect. She gathered her belongings and stood up, walking to the front of the bus as the others did the same before she heard their first set of instructions.

Walking off to the side, Delilah left her bags on the curb, looking back as she walked towards the training complex to assure herself they would get picked up. She tugged on the headphones to finally them away inside her purse; after all, now wasn't the time or place to be anti-social. She was hungry more than anything, and she could only hope that her stomach would stop announcing it to the world.

Max climbs out of the bus, two duffel bags swung over his shoulders as he dropped them down where he was instructed to. He took some time to look around at Green's and breathed in the air. It was nice to be out here, not in the crowded public school hallways or holed up in his basement practicing Judo. Here he had a future.

Max noticed the others making their way to the Training complex and took the opportunity to blend in with the others, something he usually slipped back to when he was in school. He glanced over at his future classmates and raised an eyebrow. They looked much better than he thought they would be. They weren't huge with humongous guns. They looked normal. Like him and that cheered him up a bit. Enough to make him wave to greet them.

@DreadPirate@Xandrya

Helena sat back in her bus seat, simply relaxing and reading a book. Though she did have earphones in, the soft R&B playing more served as ambient music than an actual form of entertainment. She read a book focused on a team of heroes, and was quite enjoying herself. Hours seemed to fly by as she read- so much so that she almost didn't notice when they finally reached the Academy.

They rolled to a stop and were told to leave their belongings behind. Helena didn't mind this as she exited the bus, as there wasn't much worth stealing anyway. She looked up at the academy, amazed to be in a place touched by Dan Green. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw someone up looking down on them as they exited. I wonder if that's him, she thought. They were making history by being the first class to be taught in this place.

The woman looked around and saw three people gathering together. She wasn't sure if they all knew each other, or just friendly strangers. Either way, they would have to meet each other anyway, right? Helena walked up to the group. "You guys excited too?" she asked, wanting to strike up some small talk until the tour or whatever began.

@ineffable @Xandrya @DreadPirate

That was probably the longest bus ride in my life Kevin thought as he finally managed to catch a view of the MMA Academy. He was used to traveling... just not to places so far from civilization. Back in New York, civilization was everywhere and it the term concrete jungle had always lived up to its reputation. Just like the rest of his classmates, Kevin had spent the time on the bus, slouched in his chair, eyes focused on his phone with his dark Beats headphones to drown out any noise. Sleep came here and there during the ride but it was hard being still for so long, especially with all these rival students around him.

When they finally got of the bus, Kevin silenced his music placing his head phones around his neck and his phone is his pocket... last thing he needed was to be that guy that stood out or that guy who didn't get the incoming instructions. Anticipation and the itch of competition built up in his stomach, he couldn't way to get started.

@DreadPirate@ineffable@Xandrya@1Hawkeyes@DragonofTheWest

"Alright everyone?" Alex started "Get you all gathered around here? Great.. well I suppose I'll be the first to welcome you all to the MMA Academy. You six are going to be the first of many groups of students that hopefully pass through these halls. We do have another few students, but there were various complications, so this first week or so, it's just gonna be you guys. I'm Alexander Slade, but please, call me Alex. I'm one of the instructors or coaches, I guess. Well, just follow me inside, and we'll start showing you around."

Alex turned on his heel and led the way inside. The doors opened onto a small foyer, empty except for an unmanned desk and another door to the left of it leading further into the building. Pushing on through, the group found themselves in the inner sanctum- a cavernous room filled wall to wall with everything a fighter needed to train: an area of heavily padded flooring and walls along the left hand side, perfect for grappling or clinch work. Speed bags and heavy bags mounted along the right wall, along with an assortment of treadmills and stationary bikes. A boxing ring sat at the back of the room, a practice-size octagon in the center. Simply put, the place looked like paradise.

"Nice right? We modeled it after The Ultimate Fighter training center. Say what you will about the show, the UFC spares no expense in giving those prospects a place to work, we applied the same principle here. Locker rooms, showers, through this door to my immediate left. The one next to it leads on to a small kitchen and break room... oh here's the man"

As Alex was speaking the door to the kitchen opened up and Dan Green walked in. For being over 40, the man still looked like a fighter in his prime, save for the obvious age lines and old scars on his face. He smiled at the group and took center stage.
"I walk away for one minute and all of a sudden, I've got some students. Hey guys, welcome aboard. I'm not gonna bore ya with any kind of long-winded speech, just gonna keep it simple; You're all here because we saw something in each one of you. Future champions, and we're gonna do what we can to bring those champions out. By the time you guys leave here, you won't be complete MMA fighters, you'll be better than that. That's the objective of this program. Every single aspect of this place was designed so you guys only have to think about one, single, thing, being the best damn fighter that you can be."

"Now then, I gotta go round up the troops so we can do some formal introductions before we let Alex finish out the tour. Just sit tight for a bit, have a look around, get to know each other if you want, and we'll be back with everyone else!"

Paul didn't even hear the others trying to make small talk, only one thing was on his mind, a nice hot... Was that THE Dan Green? He couldn't believe it. It was surreal as this living legend gave a casual rundown of a state of the art facility. He had no idea what these people saw in some scruffy kid from Miami but if it was good enough to get noticed? He didn't care.

Paul immediately headed for the nice hot showers. The long bus ride was hell and he smelt of ancient leather, carpet seats and god knows what. He popped on some music from his phone, it wasn't the manliest thing in the world but neither was music in the shower in general. R&B to soothe the soul, his mix of Marvin Gaye let his body relax from travel weariness.

He quickly stripped down and hung his clothes up, letting the steam fill his nostrils he entered the shower ready for a nice peaceful solitary cleaning.

Helena's heart swelled as Dan Green gave them his speech. He seemed so casual, but then again a skilled fighter as himself had no reason to be too intimidating- everybody here should know he would destroy them within the first round. Dan Green saw something in each of them and gave them an amazing gym like this to train in. He wanted all of them to succeed, and that made Helena feel pretty damn special.

Green invited the crew to tour the academy until he was back. Helena really didn't want to go to far. Instead she looked at the heavy bags. They sat in the bus for so long, she at least needed a bit of a stretch. So, she walked over to the heavy bag area, carefully slipped off her shoes, and bowed before stepping on the mat- a tradition at her own, and many other gyms. She pushed the heavy bag, testing its weight. "Yup, that's heavy," she confirmed to herself with a slight smirk. The woman got into her stance, and loosely jabbed at the bag, making sure she was a good distance away from it. Then, she hit it a bit harder, now doing "the ol' 1-2." Of course she wouldn't go all out on the bag now, as she had no hand protection. There was no way she was going to injure her hand the first day.

So, Helena continued the light tapping of the bag, slowly introducing hooks, uppercuts, elbows, and knees. She kept her rhythm fairly slow, mainly concentrating on her fluidity of moving from one strike to the next.

Delilah looked around the training center, noting the various equipment available for the students' use. She honestly couldn't help but admire the effort required to put together an academy in its entirety. It showed a tremendous level of dedication, and whom to better learn from if it isn't someone who's got a passion for their work.

Finding herself with a bit of time to kill, Delilah walked over to the girl who had talked to her earlier. She took off her shoes as well and walked behind the bag, holding it in place to make it easier on the girl as she threw her punches.

"Yes, I am excited to be here," she smiled, having been interrupted earlier by Alex's introduction. Delilah shifted her footing to put most of her weight forward in order to give her better support. "I'm Delilah, by the way. I'm guessing we'll be hanging out a lot given that we're the only two female students so far."

@1Hawkeyes

It was truly incredible. If there was one way for a young fighter to get excited it was seeing a legend himself in the flesh but only then as he stood, gave his speech and introduced his academy to his students did Kevin truly understand that he was in a special situation. Every boxing gym he had been to had their own unique feel but this new MMA academy was something unlike anything else. "I can't wait to get started..." he silently thought as he watched the crowd of students go their separate ways. Considering that Dan Green himself was going to return and make more official announcements Kevin figured it was best not to get to worked up. Still The young boxer stretched his neck and rolled his shoulders in an attempt to warm up as he approached the right wall while taking note of the two other female students working the heavy bag. In a way watching others working out sparked a little bit of a competitive fire in him, he should be at least doing something. After taking a quick glance at all the striking bags, Kevin smirked as he focused on the wall mounted speed bag. What started as a steady rhythm suddenly began to rapidly pick up in pace as speed and hand-eye coordination were put on display. Just another session for a boxer working on his craft.

Helena watched as a woman walked up and placed herself behind the bad. She definitely didn't expect it, but it was much appreciated. The woman, who introduced herself as Delilah. "Oh shoot, we are?" Helena asked, momentarily stopping to take a look around. Delilah was right, they were the only two women around. She returned to the slow and steady combos on the heavy bag. "Yeah, you're right. We'll probably be paired up a lot, especially in sparring." Helena went on for another minute, practicing the fluidity of her moves, before finally stopping.

"Alright, I think it's time for you to have some fun," Helena said, rolling out her now loose shoulders. She scooched Delilah out of the way, insisting that she take a turn. Helena knew if she were the one holding the bag, she would've been itching to at least get one punch in, so she could only imagine what her heavy bag partner was feeling, especially after the long ride. "Nice meeting you, by the way," Helena added quickly before positioning herself behind the heavy bag.

@Xandrya

While eyes widened and jaws dropped, Rambo nodded to himself.

"The smell," He said aloud with a grin. "It smells too good in here."

The facility was a grand spectacle, furnished with the best equipment money could buy. The size and scope of it all was a bit overwhelming. Everything had a new car smell to it, a sterility that juxtaposed the grimy enclosures he normally trained in. Rambo was used to the crowded mess of small gyms; the poorly ventilated air filled with body odor and hip hop, the endless sea of fight posters and ring photos hanging on sweat soaked walls. No signs of duct tape holding together rickety old heavy bags here. Rambo smiled at the treadmills and stationary bikes lining up next to each other. No more waiting in line to get your cardio in. Hell, there was so much space in this facility, why get on a treadmill when you could just jog around. Rambo scratched an itch on his dyed-blonde mohawk as people already started warming up or hitting the showers. He shrugged, set his bag down, then headed toward the kitchen.

Max glanced around him, his jaw slightly dropping as he took it all in. He turned to someone next to him once Alex stopped speaking and smiled at their comment.
"Yeah it does, man. Say, what's your name again?"

Max turned to size the other guy up, following him as he headed to the kitchen. He looked like he really wasn't that in awe of everything but maybe that was just him. Nevertheless, Max was intrigued and when he was intrigued he usually followed his gut.

@Whiskey Business

"Norifumi Rambachartchai," He said. After living stateside, he got used to the confused look on people's faces whenever he said his full name. It was immediately followed up with: "Rambo for short."

"You?" Rambo asked, raising his fist to bump his, sealing their introduction.

Americans had so many handshake variations that he had to stick with the most basic one, but he noticed that the guy had a British accent whenever he talked.

"You from across the pond?" Rambo asked as they went through the kitchen doors. His eyes lit up. Never had he seen such a large area for cooking. Rambo started looking through the cupboards and cabinets, disappointed at his findings.

"No Oreos?"

@ineffable

@DreadPirate@1Hawkeyes@Whiskey Business@Xandrya@ineffable@DragonofTheWest

Jason had wandered off to the side and sat along the wall, taking it all in. His father had been obsessed with this project for the last few years, it was heartwarming to see it finally come to fruition, and so close to home too. Sure, they were from the East Coast, but Dan had been training out of Toronto since before Jason was born, the city was like a second home to them both.

He became suddenly aware that he probably seemed standoffish, sitting off alone this whole time. As he stood to go join his fellow students, the door opened up and Dan and Alex walked back in, followed by the other four fighters who'd be acting as the Academy's instructors.
"Oi! Everyone fall in" Alex called out, his voice echoing through the gym "Grab a seat on the mat, or stand if you'd rather. Let's get this show on the road!"

Once everyone had gathered around, Dan stepped up to speak. The rest of the instructors stood behind him, arms folded or held behind their backs.
"Just wanted to introduce you guys to these fine men and women who'll be molding you all into champions, and what specifically they'll be doing. Anyone who's ever seen me in my prime knows that my focus is boxing, but I'll also be doing a course on Fight Theory, you'll find out exactly what that is the first time it comes up in the schedule. All I'll say about it now is that it's about the mental side of the sport."
Next he turned and pointed to Alex "You've already met Mr. Slade. He won the Ultimate Fighter the year I was selected to coach, we've been training together ever since. He'll be in charge of sharpening up your technique and showing you some.. let's say creative ways of utilizing your striking. Real fun guy to be around too."

"Moving right on down the line, direct from Venice Beach, California, Mr. Alvey "King" Kulina, a true veteran and a legend in PRIDE. He's the master of weight management, and he's also our primary kickboxing specialist." Next up, the only female instructor "I'm sure most of you are familiar with Amanda here. Ms. Hart is our resident wrestling and judo queen. Don't be fooled by her short stature, she'll have even the biggest of you on your ass in a split-second, and you'll have no idea how you got there."

"Our last two instructors are a pair of fighters who trained under me in the past: Jiu-Jitsu champion Riccardo Souza and Thai-clinch crusher Andre Braga. As you can probably gather, Riccardo will be handling Jiu-Jitsu and the miscellaneous aspects of ground work, while Andre will be sharpening Muay Thai skills, as well as clinch work and teaching you all how to take full advantage of the cage. You'll get to know them all better when classes begin, but for now, give them all a hand, great. Alex has a few things to cover and then we'll get you moving on to the rest of the tour. Thanks guys"

Without a beat, Alex stepped up and began.
"Alright everyone, little bit of housekeeping is all, things that you all should know about how this is going to work. To keep everything running smooth and manageable, we've broken you guys down into groups of 7*. Way it's gonna go, for example, one group could have a morning session with myself here in the gym, while another has Fight Theory with Dan in the classroom at the back of this building, and the 3rd group could be doing conditioning training outside. All that to say, from here on out, the other people in your group are your classmates, training partners, and roommates. There's gonna be a copy of the schedule in every bedroom in the Dorm, as well as in the common areas. Now, first group. That's gonna be..."

Jason let his mind wander as Alex read off the names, subconsciously sizing up other students to see how he'd match up with each of them physically. There was a complete possibility of having to fight some of them at some point in the future, whether here at the academy or out in the real world. He snapped back to attention.

"... that leaves Blue group, comprised of Helena Estrada, Delilah Callahan, Paul Russo, Max Callaghan, Kevin Ilagan, Norifumi, and Jason Green. Ok, that's settled, come on everyone, we'll have a look at the rest of the place on the way to the dorms."

Alex led the way out through a back door to the gym, emerging in the sunlight.
"There's not a whole lot to see to be perfectly honest. The building next door, we call the Olympic center, 3 floors of non-MMA related activities, a full-size runner's track, Olympic-caliber pool, basketball, tennis courts, etcetera. You guys'll be doing some course work in there, but most of it will be centered around the gym. And the only other finished properties are the staff apartments and the industrial building, both of which are off-limits to students, so we'll head on over to the dorms."

They crossed the sweeping grass fields off to the western edge of the academy grounds, where a trio of beautiful two-story log cabins stood. A cleared lot with obvious foundations for a fourth cabin sat a few feet away from the closest one.
"Welcome home lads and ladies. Your bags have already been laid inside, up to each of you to determine rooming arrangements. Blue group, that's yours on the left. Yellow, you're in the middle. Red in the last. If you ever get confused, here's a tip, the front door is colored by group. Head on in, have a look around, relax a little. I believe the rest of today is yours to do as you please, but Dan wants to get everyone together this evening for a communal supper, so see you all later!"

And with that, he walked off, leaving the students to wander into their new homes. Jason found himself leading the way inside of Blue group's cabin.
"Home sweet home" he said to no one in particular.

(*OOC Note: 21 students total at the start of things here, as explained in the post, the 7 of us are a group, the other 14 are NPCs to fill the background, nothing to overly concern yourselves with)
(OOC Note 2: I plan on doing up a little drawing to show the layout of the cabins interior, as well as an overhead view of the academy grounds. For now, I'll just say for the purpose of divvying up the rooms, it's a 3-bedroom. There's 3 beds in one room, 2 in the others)

For the most part, Delilah remained quiet as she slowly delivered her punches. Her body wasn't sore per se, but it was definitely stiff. Although people always warmed up pre-workout, Delilah usually skipped that step. She had once heard that warming up made some more susceptible to injury as their muscles were loosened up and thus easier to damage if an incident were to occur. And besides, she never noticed the difference whether she warmed up or not as she either had a good work-out or a bad one, never somewhere in between. Delilah maintained her breathing throughout her routine. That's the one thing that always stuck with her from one of her previous lessons: "Be conscious of your breathing", her instructor had said. And he was right. If all else failed, always resort to the basics.

Some time passed before beads of sweat started to form on her face and chest area, and Delilah breathed a sigh of relief when a voice called out for them to fall in. She could have stopped at any moment, but somehow she felt the need to prove herself, even though they hadn't even started training just yet. "Come on," she said, motioning for her partner to follow her. Delilah was eager to get through the first day and settle in. She'd been waiting some time to arrive to the academy and she was finally there.

*****

After the announcement at the end of the tour, Delilah and the rest of the members of her group headed inside their cabin. She picked up her bag and settled it on one of two beds in the first room she saw. Oddly enough, part of her missed home already, a side effect of her inability to adjust to change. But she reminded herself that everything would be alright; this opportunity was rare to come by and so she had to consider herself lucky to be there.

Helena ate up every single word of the tour. Personally, although she idolized Green, she looked the most forward to training with "King." Not only was he one of the greatest kickboxers of all time, but he also he was from Venice Beach, a few cities away from her own origin city. Hearing Venice immediately brought her thoughts to home and she felt a slight tug at her heart. This quickly subsided as Green continued.

Finally they were split into separate teams and given housing. The beds were split slightly oddly, but she then remembered the number of girls on their team. "They must really have thought everything out," Helena murmured as she walked into the room containing only two beds.

She noted which bed Delilah chose and so she took the other. The bed wasn't going to matter much anyway as they would be training most of the day anyway. Helena placed her stuff atop the bed and flopped down beside it. "Yup," Helena said, chuckling, "these beds really are comfortable."

She stretched and relaxed for a moment and sat up. "Can't wait until the supper. Everything else is so great here, I could only imagine the food," Helena said to Delilah. Personally, she planned on eating a pretty good amount of food, considering they would most likely be on a strict diet later on.

@Xandrya

"Well, I'm glad the beds are comfortable," Delilah said as she went through her bags to start unpacking. "We're going to be terribly sore once we commence our training, and getting a good night's rest is crucial throughout our time here, especially these first upcoming weeks." Delilah started placing items on the bed, the bulk of it being training outfits mixed with her regular clothes. Seeing her belongings out on display, she started to wonder what she'd wear for dinner. Something nice, but not over-the-top. First impressions were everything, and she wasn't going to allow room for mistakes.

"I'm not going to lie, I'm both excited and a little nervous for tonight. It's our first official meeting with everyone in the school, and there's bound to be some level of formality, although I'm not really sure what that is just yet."

Delilah picked out a plain, white blouse from the bundle on her bed. She held it out in front of her and after a few indecisive moments, she concluded that it'd be perfect for dinner. She then put aside her pair of black pants, and a black pair of flats to complete the look. Everything else was to be put away sooner rather than later.

"Well that was easier than I thought," she said, grabbing her shoes to start organizing.

1Hawkeyes

@Xandrya@1Hawkeyes@Whiskey Business@ineffable@DragonofTheWest@DreadPirate (OOC: If you guys are still willing to continue, it's time to get things back on track. If not, please let me know you are dropping out)

The guys quickly sorted out the rooming situation. Jason wasn't exactly particular about who he'd be sharing a room with, and the others seemed to have a similar mindset. With that out of the way, Jason began to socialize with his new classmates and got to know them a little. Before too long, it was about time to gather for supper, but no one had come to collect them. The dorm cabins were wired with a PA system just for occasions like this. It rang to life and Dan's voice came out.

"Sorry about the lack of notice everyone, but I'm going to have to cancel the communal meal. Something came up that requires my immediate attention. This really sucks, I wanted to get us all together to mark the opening of the academy, but unfortunately it'll have to wait for another night. The kitchen staff will be coming along the dorms shortly to drop off some food and to stock up the cupboards. If there's anything in particular you want that they don't have, any dietary restrictions, anything at all like that, please let them know. First classes are at 8 A.M. tomorrow, so don't stay up too late kids!"

The night proceeded on rather quietly, the kitchen staff came and went, the group ate together, eventually Jason drifted out to the spacious back porch, there was plenty of comfortable seating and a fire pit at each cabin's rear. There was also a well-lit, in-ground pool, with a pair of hot tubs, one at either end. A few students from the other groups were taking an evening dip, while others were sitting around fires of their own.

'This is gonna be alright' Jason decided.

-------

7 A.M. came all too quick. A short alarm roused Jason and his roommates. Blue group's first lesson was going to be with Alex in the main training center, and Jason had a firm idea of what was on the docket...