The sun was just setting as the Owl jogged along the paved path leading down the Champ de Mars to the Eiffel Tower. Several families sat around in the grass, a couple of them with picnic baskets of food open beside them. The scent of grilling food wafted across the park from the row of restaurants lining the river. As he looked in that direction, his eye stopped on two figures sitting on the far side of the Tower closest to the Seine; studying them closer, the Owl recognized Laurent, with Marie sitting beside him. The sound of music came off the water as a houseboat floated lazily past. Passing an older couple sitting on a bench, the Owl's stomach rumbled on catching the scent of roast beef from one of their sandwiches. Beneath his cowl, he gritted his teeth, trying to take his mind off of the emptiness in his stomach.
"King Monkey said that he will meet you by the tower support in a couple minutes," came M. Damocles' voice over the new communicator in the Owl's ear.
The Owl almost jumped on hearing the voice, but he shook his head to get his mind back onto what he was doing, scanning the park as he did so. No matter how many times he heard it, he wasn't sure if he would ever be able to get used to having M. Damocles in his ear. "Understood," he responded, his voice oddly distorted by the modulator built into the cowl. He frowned, humming as he tried to shift the padding to sit better on his shoulders: this suit and tech would take some getting used to. Though it was not his first time in the suit, it still needed breaking in – especially after Pegasus had fixed the modulator over the weekend.
As if sensing his thoughts, M. Damocles' voice came back. "Do not worry about how everything works for your patrol tonight; King Monkey's only objective for today is training – hand-to-hand combat, along with your equipment. You will learn more about the process of patrolling once you have mastered the basics."
"Great," the Owl muttered glumly. "And I thought the summer meant no more gym class…"
"Unless you plan to talk your way out of every encounter, you need to work on your physical conditioning," M. Damocles pointed out.
The Owl sighed heavily, stopping by the Tower support farthest from Laurent and Marie. "Yes, sir."
"Hey, man!" a cheerful voice called from behind the Owl. He turned around in surprise as King Monkey sprinted up the path alongside the river, wind whipping through his hair. Skidding to a stop in front of the Owl, King Monkey grinned cheekily, holding a paper bag in one hand. He cocked his head in feigned shock. "Owl! Have you… shrunk?"
The Owl rolled his eyes beneath the cowl. "It was the evil Doctor Mini," he replied, shaking his head.
King Monkey smirked. "Well, we'd better not let him get away with it!" He twisted his body from side to side at the waist, cracking his neck as he did so. "So what's happening, Birdman Junior?"
The Owl shrugged. "Not much; ready for my first lesson!" The smell of cooked beef hit his nose, and his stomach growled, his eyes drifting toward the bag in King Monkey's hand.
"Sweet!" King Monkey glanced down at the bag and hummed. "Probably not much point to holding onto this until we finish patrol…" he mused.
The Owl cocked his head in confusion. "What?"
King Monkey held the bag out to him. "Want a cheeseburger? My girl and I were out to eat, and she ordered a little more food than she could actually eat. I was going to bring it home for later, but…" He shrugged. "It'd be cold by the time we get done, and something about microwaving a cheeseburger is just weird, you know? Better not to have it go to waste, right?"
The Owl nodded mutely, trying not to drool as King Monkey handed him the bag. He pulled out a cheeseburger and fries, pulled his cowl up over his mouth, and dug in with a vengeance, cramming half the burger into his mouth with two big bites before finally starting to chew.
King Monkey quirked an eyebrow at him. "Right, so let's get down to the basics," he told him. "First up, what does it mean to be a hero?"
"You help people?" the Owl tried, around a mouthful of fries.
"Do not talk with your mouth full," M. Damocles chided him. The Owl groaned in annoyance, choking down as much of the food as he could before King Monkey could ask another question.
King Monkey nodded. "You have an ability – not exactly the same as the old Owl, but still valuable–"
The Owl scoffed darkly. "I'm not sure what ability I have…" M. Damocles had inspired people – everyone knew who he was and loved him for doing what he did at his age. But now, all the stories about the Owl were wondering who he was and why he had replaced M. Damocles and…
"You have an ability," King Monkey repeated, more firmly. "You may not be able to inspire people in the same way as the other Owl did, but you can still help people and encourage them."
"There is a reason I chose to bequeath this mantle to you, M. Truffaut," M. Damocles reminded him quietly.
The Owl let out a breath, looking down at the mostly-eaten burger and empty container of fries before returning his attention to King Monkey.
King Monkey put a hand on his shoulder. "What's important – what makes you a hero – is the way you use the abilities you have, the training you have, even the name you have been given. The thing that sets heroes apart from the villains that we fight is the way we use the abilities we've been given. That means helping people who need your help. It means protecting people whenever you can. It means inspiring them – maybe not in the same way as the previous Owl, but in the way that works for you. It's not the suit or the gear or any of that which makes you a hero – all of that is just the tools you use to help people." The Owl swallowed and crumpled up the trash, tossing it into a garbage can. King Monkey eyed him carefully. "Okay, so… let's start with some hand-to-hand. Hold your hands up like this," he instructed him, stowing his cane on his belt and demonstrating the technique. "You need to protect your head and face – getting hit in the torso will hurt, but getting hit in the head can daze you, and that could leave you vulnerable. Plus, with your hands up higher, you can, move them down to protect your sides and gut more easily. See?" He nodded for the Owl to try punching him, and the Owl hesitantly jabbed at his stomach. King Monkey shifted his stance, dropping his arm to block the punch with one elbow while keeping his fist up. "Right. Now remember to protect yourself and keep your arms up."
The Owl dropped into the stance that King Monkey had showed him, moving back and forth as King Monkey had done, his eyes focused on King Monkey's face. King Monkey watched him impassively for a moment before lashing out with a punch at his head. The Owl shifted his arm to block, then again as King Monkey aimed his other fist a little lower on the opposite side. Over and over King Monkey punched, higher and lower, mixing up the side the attack came from, and the Owl bobbed and weaved, blocking each blow until his arms grew tired from holding them up for so long. Finally, just when the Owl was starting to slow down, King Monkey stepped back, nodding judiciously.
"Good," he told him. "Now, let's see how you do with avoiding the punches. Because if you can keep from getting hit, that's even better than blocking it, because it costs the opponent energy without any gain." Nodding, the Owl started juking back and forth, dodging punch after punch until King Monkey spun around and aimed a kick at his shoulder. Ducking the kick, the Owl moved to punch him in the chest. King Monkey clenched his abs as the punch landed, nodding in approval. "Not bad." He smirked. "But next comes the fun part: now you get to hit me!"
As King Monkey bobbed back and forth, the Owl sized him up carefully, making a fist, and dropped into the same stance that King Monkey had used. Nervously, he threw a punch at King Monkey's face, which King Monkey easily deflected away from himself to one side. The two went back and forth, over and over again, punching and blocking and dodging, as the park around them started to clear out and the sunlight faded behind the buildings. The Owl glanced in the direction of the river, toward where Laurent and Marie had been sitting, but they had left already. King Monkey smacked him in the side of the head, and he refocused his attention on the sparring session. Over and over he punched, and over and over King Monkey dodged to one side or the other. Finally, another several minutes of sparring, the Owl could feel his arms starting to drop from exhaustion. King Monkey relaxed, nodding to the Owl. The Owl let his arms fall to his sides, wiping is forehead with the back of his wrist.
"I think that might be enough for tonight," King Monkey decided, giving him an evaluating look. "Next time we'll go longer, but we need to work up to it."
The Owl groaned in relief. "Thanks… I don't know how much more I could take tonight!"
King Monkey smirked. "Unfortunately, the bad guys don't normally give you a choice on when to stop!" He hummed. "But for now… how is your aim with your Owlets? Any better than last time?"
The Owl groaned, throwing his head back. "Do you even need to ask?" he asked rhetorically.
King Monkey raised an eyebrow. "Well, if you can learn how to throw with your arms tired, then you can throw any time you want. So…" He gestured toward the tower. "Let's see what you've got."
The Owl furrowed his brow, angling his Owlet and throwing with a flick of the wrist. The Owlet soared past the Tower, over the sidewalk, and into the water with a splash. Groaning in frustration, the Owl turned away. "See?"
Putting a hand on the Owl's shoulder, King Monkey clapped him encouragingly. "Not too bade," he began. The Owl cocked his head to one side dubiously. "It took the other Owl close too three months to figure out how to make them fly, let alone to actually hit something."
"When you throw," advised M. Damocles, "be sure to keep you r eye on the target, even while you are throwing the Owlet. It will arc sharply, but it will come back."
The Owl nodded obediently, drawing his second Owlet and winding up to throw. This time, the Owlet flew true, looping through the empty space in the Eiffel Tower's supports before clattering to the ground in the center of the plaza.
King Monkey nodded in approval. "Not back, kid," he told him.
The Owl grinned in exhilaration. "Next up is the Lynchpin-ions, right?"
King Monkey clapped him on the shoulder. "We should probably wait a week or two before that, bro."