And Max gets to see what Jason is like when he's not training or teaching.
Chapter 20: Facts About Jason
By the next day, Max showed up at the MMA facility a little early while he's waiting for Blackhawk, Tae Kwan Do and Logan to arrive and he takes some time to just wander around a little bit and walked to the MMA training room where he and Jason train at and thought he'd pass the time to just do a little bit of kung-fu/MMA hybrid moves for a little mini-practice run before the lesson begins as soon as Jason comes in.
Suddenly, he heard a couple of noises somewhere above and being the curious cub that he is, he decides to go investigate where that came from and to Max's surprise, it came from upstairs...to which he had no idea there was actually one in the hallway and he walks up the steps and kept following the sounds until he reached another upstairs hallway and the sounds grow closer and closer and closer until it hit the most unlikely places he'd find.
As he comes to a room, he takes a little peek onto a keyhole on the door and saw someone standing there with multiple scars and marks on someone's back and he wanted to see who it really was and the second the person turned around...he was immediately familiarized with the face.
"Jason?" Max whispered.
Max could not believe that it was Jason in that place...and what's more, he had no idea that he lived on top of the MMA facility the whole time and never knew that there was a little side of him he'd never seen before...but instead of running away in fear, he stayed there to see what else is going on.
On the other side of the door, a shirtless Jason was pacing around back and forth in deep anxiety and frustration with himself and he looked at himself in the mirror and as he was staring at himself, he could still see the little mad-as-hell and reckless teenage tiger that used to cause mayhem on the streets when it comes to MMA and an avid streetfighter and the more he sees of it, the more his past won't leave him alone.
At some point, he placed his paws around his head and face, trying his best to not see it, but all of those thoughts keep running over his head and it took control of him and at some point, he punched the crap out of the mirror very quickly, glass shattering all over. Blood was around his knuckles a lot as Jason panted heavily and realized what he just did.
"Aw, man...not again. No matter what I do, I'll never get rid of the person I was...even if I tried. How can Max see me like this?" Jason said, groaning.
Unbeknownst to Jason, Max saw everything and saw another side of Jason he never saw coming...and he felt absoultely sorry for him and a part of him wants to come in the room and give him a huge hug and comfort him like a big brother...which is what Max sees in Jason as not just a trainer or a teacher, but a tiger brother. Someone he can understand and relate to and relate to their sufferings and struggles they've had.
Jason panted heavily and lets out a deep sigh as a few tears came out of his eyes as he got himself up, got some shaolin wraps to heal the bloody knuckles he's got and attempted to sweep the broken glass and once he was done, he couldn't help but wonder if someone might be spying on him.
Max has a little sense that Jason would catch him in the act and before he got a chance to escape, Jason immediately peered through the keyhole to see who it was and Max stood there, caught with one blue eye.
Jason was ultimately surprised by recognizing who it was and when Max backed away a little to show himself more, that's when the shock factor kicked in.
With that, Jason opened the door and saw Max standing there and he said, "Max?"
"Hi, Jason." Max said, as innocently as possible.
Caught! What's gonna happen now? Don't worry...Max isn't in trouble. Jason's gonna let Max inside his personal life a little bit.