It was early morning on the Watchtower. Rex guessed it was probably past five in the morning when Shayera had dragged him out of bed, told him to get dressed, and then had them both teleported up to the space station. He figured this had to do with him asking his mother to train him to be a superhero the previous night. The eighteen-year-old was regretting it now.

"Move it!" Shayera ordered, roughly pulling Rex by the arm down the hallway. "I'm not wasting my time if you're not prepared to put in the effort!"

Rex yawned as he rubbed his eyes with his free hand. "Yes drill sergeant," he sarcastically muttered as he then stumbled a bit when she yanked his arm.

"Lieutenant not sergeant," she looked back at him and frowned. "You wanted training; you will be trained to fight the way I was back on Thanagar."

"Um Mom, can we maybe eat breakfast first?" Rex asked.

Shayera glared at him, "That's just a waste of time that could be used on making you more useful in combat instead."

Reluctantly Rex didn't throw back the witty reply he had just thought of and he wondered whether she was this rough on recruits when she was a military instructor back on Thanagar. Though given how long ago that was she probably had lost her edge a bit. Rex also figured she was going easy on his since he was her son. That made him really wonder how tough she used to be back in the day compared to now.

"I haven't got all day. I have more important things to do than train you. I bet in a battle situation you wouldn't last five minutes even with training!" Shayera snapped.

Rex was regretting this more and more with each passing minute. Shayera had outright refused to train him last night and it was only when she had abruptly woken him up this morning was when Rex learned that she had apparently changed her mind. Right now he had a bad feeling he was about to become her personal punching bag.

Rex figured his mother could treat any injuries he did get while training with her. Though that was if she didn't kill him first.

As not to aggravate Shayera any more than she was, Rex walked in silence behind her. Once they were in one of the training rooms, Rex sighed and muttered, "Why did I leave my nice, warm bed just to get beaten up?"

"Face me now," Shayera said rather coldly.

Rex did as he was told and faced his mother. "Don't we have to...uh...warm up and stretch first?"

Shayera raised an eyebrow, "If you were in a battle do you think your enemy would give you time to warm up and stretch? You're more stupid than you look if you think that."

"Well technically we're not in battle Mom and I don't want to pull anything," he pointed out.

He could see Shayera was getting more agitated, "Look, do you want training or not?"

"Yeah."

"Ok then, show me what you've got."

"What?"

Shayera rolled her eyes, "Try to hit me."

Rex wasn't sure if he could even land a hit on his mother but he knew he would have to if he wanted Shayera to take him seriously. He hesitated for a moment before he swung a punch at her but Shayera effortlessly caught his arm, twisted it around, and tripped his leg so Rex ended up landing flat on his face. Rex groaned as Shayera looked down at him.

"So, where did you go wrong?" she asked with a smirk, obviously having enjoyed flooring him.

"Um...not sure really," he rubbed the back of his head as he picked himself up off the floor. "Probably the fact I'm taking on someone with so many years of combat experience is my first mistake."

"You hesitated. In battle you do not hesitate to hit your enemy or they will hit you first," she placed her hands on her hips. "No matter who it is you are facing. Got it?"

Rex lightly nodded. "Right, no more hesitating."

Shayera sighed, "Ok, I'm going to hit you and you have to block it. Understand?"

"Wait wh-" he was cut short as Shayera right fist smacked across his chin, though he could tell she had pulled her punch. "See, no hesitation," she smirked again.

Rex lightly growled as he glared at Shayera and then hit her in the cheek with a left hook. She shook off the punch with a smile, "Good, you're getting it."

"Sorry," he said without thinking.

Shayera groaned in exasperation and frowned, "Never say sorry to your opponent. What kind of fighting do you do where you say sorry to the enemy?"

"Well...um...you're my mother. It's different," Rex replied.

"Even though I'm the one that's training you?" Shayera asked. "If you want me to train you then you're going to have to be able to hit me so I can see where your technique needs improvement. Now for the next lesson. If your opponent is too close to get a good punch in, show me what you would do." She moved so she was face to face with him.

Rex lightly gulped under his mother's intimidating stare, "Um...well...I guess I could just push them back. Right?"

Shayera sighed as she shook her head, "Use the heel of your palm and slam it into their chin," she simulated it without hitting him but still causing him to flinch. "You could also try elbowing them in the side just under the ribcage if they're behind you. It'll stun them a bit and hopefully push them back so you can punch or kick them. Look, after I finish teaching you all of this, we'll put all you learn into practice and you can spar with me."

"With you?" Rex asked, sounding slightly worried.

Shayera gave him an unamused look, "Of course with me."

"So are you going to teach me everything you know?"

"Not yet, you aren't ready for that stuff until you can actually put up a decent fight. I don't need you to hurt yourself. Now stand here," she said moving him so he was standing a few paces in front of her. "Now I want you to kick me."

"Kick you? Alright," he went to kick her but she moved and grabbed his leg and twisted it so he fell on his back.

She shook her head, "You know, I never thought teaching someone to fight properly would be so hard. If I were an enemy, you'd be long dead by now."

"Well the whole point of this was for you to teach me, not to kick the shit out of me."

Shayera held out her hand to help him up. "Are you going to take this seriously?"

Rex frowned as he took hold of her hand and stood, "I'm trying to but you're making it sorta of hard."

"I'm making it hard?" Shayera asked before sighing. He was picking this up slower than she had hoped he would. "Maybe we should try something else. Here, use the punching bag. Pretend it's an enemy and give it all you've got and I'll tell you where you need improving."

"Ok that I can do," Rex replied with a cocky grin.

"Alright so imagine that this is...I don't know Sinestro maybe? He has infiltrated the Watchtower and is set on killing you. Neither of you have weapons."

"But he would have a weapon. There's no way he wouldn't have his power ring on him. I would be a sitting duck against him."

Shayera heaved a frustrated sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose, "Will you just humor me? You need to know hand to hand combat to survive."

"Fine, whatever you say," Rex nodded and punched 'Sinestro' with his right then left fist before side kicking the punch bag.

Shayera smirked as she folded her arms over her chest, "You're not as bad as you appear. Your technique is good if a bit unrefined. Maybe we should move onto disarming?"

"Disarming? How the hell are you going to show me how to disarm someone?"

She continued to smirk, "Use your imagination and hold your arm out to me as if you had a gun in your hand."

Rex raised an eyebrow at this, "You're kidding me right? We're going to play pretend? I'm not some little kid Mom."

Shayera shook her head, "Look we don't exactly have any weapons to point at each other so a little imagination won't hurt." Rex rolled his eyes as he did as he was told. "Now this technique can also be used for getting information out of someone."

"You mean it's going to hurt," Rex warily said.

She smirked and nodded before she sprang forward and twisted his arm around behind his back and pushed it up roughly causing Rex to swear in pain. "See, it's effective," she said before releasing his arm.

"Yeah, a little too effective," he replied, rubbing his shoulder to try and relieve the aching.

"Well? Demonstrate it to me then," Shayera said, holding her left arm out to Rex. Rex scowled and grabbed Shayera's arm and did the same technique shown but pushed with all of his weight causing Shayera to curse in Thanagarian.

Rex immediately let go of her and looked concerned, "Mom are you ok? That's your bad shoulder. I should have been more gentle."

"It's my fault for not wearing my brace," Shayera placed her hand on her left shoulder and flexed it before wincing. "You didn't hold back at all and you didn't hesitate. That was very good. Always use an enemy's weakness against them. Remember you can also disarm by kicking the weapon out of their hand or slam their arm or hand against something hard. I don't think we need to demonstrate that as I'm sure you can figure it out," she then paused. "Maybe we should work on some flooring techniques, seeing as your kicks seem to be alright."

"Oh no," Rex shook his head and backed away as he held his hands up in defense. "No way, you are not getting near me."

"Come on Rex. What are you afraid of?" Shayera asked with a look that Rex considered to be predatory.

Rex gave Shayera an incredulous look, "What do you think?"

"I promise I won't hurt you. Well I'll try not to hurt you. Now come on, you wanted training didn't you?"

"Well yeah I did but honestly Mom you scare me a little."

Shayera looked amused at this, "I scare you?"

"Yeah, you do."

Shayera took a step forward and watched him flinch slightly. "Rex," she gently said and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I really will do my best not to injure you. Ok?"

Rex sighed, "This is gonna hurt isn't it?"

Shayera shook her head, "Not too much don't worry. Now usually Rex you can floor someone if you hit them hard enough but if that is not possible, then trip them up with a swipe of your leg and combine it with another punch at the same time. As they are still off balance from your first kick they should fall easily from the punch. If not then grab their arm like this." She moved towards Rex and took his arm in a lock and moved her shoulder into his chest. "Then you trip their leg and push into their chest with your shoulder at the same time. That will push them over."

"What like this?" Rex rhetorically asked, trying to use the second technique and floor Shayera by surprise. Though Rex had misjudged his own balance and ending up falling on top of her instead. Rex quickly climbed off of her, "Mom are you ok?"

Shayera began to laugh once she stood, "I can't take this seriously anymore. Come on we're taking a break and getting breakfast."

Rex gave her a confused look as he stood as well, "I thought you said that was a waste of time? And should we be stopping this soon? You made it sound like I wasn't doing that good most of the time."

Shayera waved him off and lightly chuckled, "You're doing perfectly fine. I was trying to be hard on you but I can't do it with a straight face anymore. I can already tell there's no way I have it in me to train you like I used to train recruits on Thanagar."

"So you'll go easier on me next time?" Rex asked in a hopeful tone.

Shayera smirked, "Not a chance."