AN: This "Patrol Log" follows up plot threads from "The Teutonic Knight."
To Butterfly: There's some more sweet in this one.
To yellow 14: I like trying to keep things "real."
"Tell us more about your time in the Maquis!"
"Oh… what more is there to tell?"
Nath grinned, listening to Marc and Opa talk. Ever since they had gotten home from their school trip to Germany a couple weeks ago, he and Marc had made a habit of going over to Opa's apartment at the independent living facility for dinner at least a couple times every week. Each time they came, Opa remembered a different story from the War, and Marc had taken to writing all of them down – he had filled an entire notebook already, and Nath could still remember hearing a few while growing that Opa hadn't mentioned yet. "I know you have more stories, Opa," Nath told him.
Opa smiled wistfully, looking off into the sitting room. He let out a cough, smacking his chest with his fist to clear his throat. "Now why would you young ones want to hear an old man's stories?"
"You remember our comic book, right?" Marc asked. Opa furrowed his brows and shook his head. "We've been publishing a comic book for a few years," Marc explained, "but as a change we want to write a limited series comic full of war stories. Especially we want to tell your stories so people know more of the other side of the war."
Opa hummed curiously.
Nath put a hand on his Opa's, drawing his attention. "Opa, I believe you know. I know your stories are true."
Opa chuckled dismissively. "I know your mother thinks my stories are farfetched, Enkelkind."
"I don't," Nath told him, squeezing his Opa's hand. "I met him. Der Deutscher Ritter. When we were in Germany, I actually met his grandson." He paused for a moment before he added, "I even fought alongside him."
Opa's eyes widened in amazement. "My grandson… fought alongside of der Ritter…" He shook his head ruefully. "Will the wonders never end?" He chuckled. "And after all these years, too…" He sighed. "Have I told you about the Battle of the Bulge?" he asked. Nath shook his head. "That was the last time I saw the Ritter," Opa continued. "He and der Flügelmann were defending the skies above the Ardennes, and le Maquillon had assigned me to shadow the U.S. Army through the forest – we have reports of Übermacht fighters in the area. When the Germans attack, I'm there with an American called the Glider. The Ritter came at me out of the sun, and he almost got me before I even knew he was there. We dueled back and forth for an hour while the tanks fought below us. The Glider's suit got a hole in it, and he started losing altitude too fast, going into an uncontrolled dive. The Flügelmann dove after him, and der Ritter would have had me dead to rights when I went to help the Glider, only he stayed where he was."
"What did the Flügelmann look like?" asked Nath, closing his eyes in concentration.
"Small, thin, naught but skin and bones he was," Opa answered. "Somehow the Überwissen scientists had grafted feathers onto his arms, turning them into working wings. And he had these darts – flechettes – that he could throw with almost pinpoint accuracy."
"Uniform?"
Opa hummed. "Red, white, and black triangles on his torso, I think… with a gold swastika in the middle of his chest. Bare arms. And a gold helmet."
Nath nodded slowly, committing the visual to memory. He opened his eyes to find Marc watching him curiously. Nath gave him an encouraging smile.
"And you say that der Deutscher Ritter is back?" Opa asked.
"Well, his grandson is back," Nath clarified. "He's going to work with the Heroes of Paris now!"
Opa shook his head ruefully. "After all these years… it's amazing to think that Paris has its heroes back."
"There were others?" Marc cocked his head in surprise.
"A few," Opa replied, chuckling. "Let's see, there was…" his voice trailed off, and he furrowed his brows. "I… I don't remember." He frowned.
Nath checked his watch. "It is getting late, Opa," he consoled him. "Perhaps you'll remember tomorrow."
"Yes… perhaps." Opa let out a moist cough. "Oh, excuse me," he apologized.
"Are you feeling okay?" asked Nath, worried.
"I'm fine," Opa assured him. "It's just a cough that's been going around this place for a few weeks."
Nath frowned, glancing at Marc. "Well, we do need to be going now, anyways."
"We'll be back again for dinner tomorrow night, sir," Marc assured Opa, grinning. "Your stories are fantastic!"
"I'll be here!" Opa told them as they left his apartment and climbed the stairs to the roof.
Nath tried to smile, but he couldn't help feeling a twinge of remorse. After all of these years, now he knew for absolute certain that Opa's stories were true. And now Opa couldn't remember all of them anymore. He felt Marc place a hand on his shoulder consolingly and reached up to take it.
"I'm sorry," Marc told him quietly, pushing the door open.
Nath nodded. "Yeah. Me, too." He shook his head, forcing himself to smile. "But he wasn't wrong about Paris having its heroes – one more now!" he added, withdrawing a wooden box from his pocket.
Marc gave him a worried look but grinned along with Nath's forced cheerfulness. "Got that right!" he agreed, opening the box and pulling out the hair clips, affixing them in his hair. Black and white light bursts shot out of the clips and coalesced together into a Kwami.
"Howdy, Capricorn!" Ziggy called, bowing with a flourish. "Fine night for a run, eh?"
"Got that right, Zig!" Marc agreed, nodding excitedly. "Ziggy, Horns down!" Black-and-white light swirled around him, and a moment later Capricorn stood before Geber in a grey bodysuit with black fur covering his legs, curly black-and-white-striped horns emerging from either side of his head beside his miraculous hair clips. He drew his shepherd's staff with a flourish, planting the end on the ground.
Nath transformed as well and grinned at witnessing Capricorn's enthusiasm. This wasn't the first time Capricorn had transformed – he'd trained a few times with Carapace over the last couple weeks – but this was his first actual patrol. At first Marinette had planned to take him on patrol herself for his first time out, but it had taken surprisingly little effort on Nath's part for him to convince her to agree to a trade. "Ready to go?"
Capricorn dropped into a sprinter's stance, his staff held in one hand behind his arm. "After you, babe!"
Geber backed away from the edge of the roof and took a running start, leaping off into the night. Capricorn raced after him, sprinting across the rooftops. Geber led the way down the avenue, eyes peeled for signs of danger. The chill January air fogged in front of his face; he could imagine that very few criminals wanted to be out in this cold. After leading Capricorn around the city, they finally stopped on the roof of Notre Dame.
"So is this what patrol is usually like?" asked Capricorn.
Geber nodded. "Sometimes. Other times it can get pretty wild. Once Carapace and I just sat for an hour and watched Tyran-X wreck shop."
Capricorn's eyebrows shot up. "Seriously? And you didn't… stop him?"
"It was his late wife's birthday," Geber explained, shrugging. "He wasn't hurting anyone."
Capricorn hummed. "I can see why you didn't suggest that one for a Geber book." He cocked his head to the side. "So how many of those story ideas actually came from patrols?"
Geber smirked. "Only about half."
Capricorn shrugged. "Well, if you're up for it, I have some dialogue for us to try out." He handed Geber a piece of paper, cleared his throat, and stated, "It's a dark night – almost as dark as Hawk Moth's soul."
"He'd better not try anything tonight, or we'll light him up – with vengeance!" Geber read.
"Do you think we can unmask him together?"
"He's not the brightest super-villain out there!" Geber looked up from the paper and frowned. "This feels a little stilted," he told Capricorn.
"Yeah," Capricorn admitted, grimacing. "It's just a rough first draft."
"We could just try ad libbing it," Geber suggested, raising an eyebrow. "Half the point of this was for the banter to be more natural, after all." Capricorn furrowed his brows in thought and nodded. "Hopefully we'll have plenty more chances to test it out!"
Capricorn grinned. "I'd like that."
AN: And just like that, I'm over 1 million words written in this AU (According to AO3)!