Our Flag Still Flies- War of Rebellion Chapter 8: Bored and Waiting, a dc superheroes fanfic

Our Flag Still Flies – War of Rebellion –

PART EIGHT: Bored and Waiting

Bored as in "Board" to be exact since Dick is going to meet Alexi with his new fam. Find out, back on a flare day and the sparks are gonna fly!

Mercy. She was wiser in her youth, yet Alexi needed a brand-new face to keep him in his own mind.

"She'll be perfect." He stood before a tall pane of glass and looked to see the automobile arriving on the spot.

"Mercy, my child?"

The green suited woman in the corner had just finished tidying herself for her new undercover job. She wore boots as a boy, and a military naval uniform with all of her buttons in knots. She was safe as long as the General did not recognize her face. There was one problem, however grand this plan might be…

"Sir, the soldiers coming with him today…"

"I'll be sure to keep you from them. Just do as I ask, be sure to stay hidden until I call and bring that mask along." Alexi promised, not moving his head as he tried his hardest to do as he had to keep Jade calm.

Jade had tied down a small bulge for him, just to be heard but yet…. yet, Roy never came back since the rebels had fallen back into the shadows to regroup. She had once trusted them to try, to try and to suffer for all of the world and yet…. yet…

She clutched a short blade under her sock and took to the fox's mask in her hand. Could be a cat by how it grinned; keen on seeing the victims dance around as mindless drones in the near future. "As you command, Lord Alexi."

As a hand had fallen away from her stomach, as her baby's life force soon seeped into Jade's motherly being – how she missed her Roy and what he had left her here to do on her own…

"From here on out, call me…. your, Mercy. Sir."

Dick was unsure of how to drown out the sound of his visions. That Cobb had torn him from his parents and Slade was just returning the favor, sanctifying his pact to tempt the owl lord's underling. The Court could care less. Going forward into the halls, the drive had been the least of their troubles as Grant never took his eyes off of Richard or even Rosa, who was wondering how hot the rafters could burn from one grenade's light.

"The metallic structure looks unfinished." Rosa nudged Richard as he tried to simply tolerate her enthusiasm with the surrounding architecture.

"Rosa." Grant was there, his eyes olden and tired as she stirred some deep hatred in his tainted green orbs. "I'm just keeping the man alert to his surroundings. We may one day be the trio to bring this space to ruin."

"Oh, my…. guests have arrived already?"

The General faced Alexi, his hairless scalp due to a freak accident standing out as the thumb he could have lifted to send them away earlier. "Come, your time is short and these stadardized…. meetings were kept just after our own." He coaxed the General inside of his office; the glass pane and behind his view, stood a magnificent waterfall within the glass.

Rosa's fingers twitched as she reenacted a grenade being tossed at the pane before the soldiers. "Your crew is a bit…. luckless in my eyes, sire. What brings you to our fair city?"

"The state of the rebel's uprising has shifted."

Slade nudged his head to have Rosa act. She went for Robin's arm and tugged him to the hallway door, pushing him out as he had not the gall to protest.

Out in the room beyond Alexi's office, was an uncertain feeling, a rush of wonder as to how long the corridors ran. So he too, ran for one –

"Going so soon?"

A dark eyed woman in a green military uniform stood in his way, the only hall blocked as she held two blades in both of her hands. "Alexi ordered me to see to your General's visit. Stay, I won't keep you much longer than they'll be."

"I'm going to be out, to get some air."

"Did you get permission at all from your superior?"

Robin looked over the woman, her body betraying his sights as someone from his old time as a rebel. "You're with child." Robin pointed out. "I can't fight you."

"Then why don't I see to that mouth for your master's sake? A pregnant woman is far more capable for a boy that fights for himself."

Richard flinched. He wasn't…. Slade had cheated him out of a life, that was all a wrong assumption.

"He's not my –

"Robin?"

Slade was there with Alexi, the commotion causing a fuss as Rose was ordered to stay while the General trained his young soldier in the next room. As Alexi had allowed this, Robin's neck was grazed by a thick pair of gloves. "You need to watch yourself around this man's offices, boy."

"She….is wrong!" Growled the ex – noble as Slade slipped his arm behind the man's back and tugged up, the digging bone bent in a way that had Robin crane his neck in pain. "I don't like to punish my own staff while outside of our territory, yet you still won't listen; you do belong to me, until I have decided that Cobb has no need of you. For now, you'll stay quiet and observe. It was wrong to send you outside that door but I had to know."

Robin's eyes screwed shut by the pain in his shoulder. "Say that you won't try that again. As far as the Court knows, I OWN you." Slade pulled off and Robin had to pick himself up. "Stay." Alexi stood in the door as Slade pulled out a small disc shaped metal plate and stuck it to Richard's uniform. "Go ahead, rise." He ushered the rebel to fight, just to do as he was told or to flee. If only he was aware of what the General could do to his own students. Richard took the wall in hand and rose slowly, the pain in his shoulder biting as he moved, as if limping to the room.

Slade acted and shoved Robin back inside it, Rose staying out of this mess as Grant waited beside the green suited guard. Arms to his sides. "You took him out, what is your level of expertise?" Grant asked Jade, her eyes shining below the cat mask.

"I'm just taking this job to support someone." Jade moved to the side and walked; the way she swayed made the two siblings shake their heads. "She's gorgeous, but…was she pregnant, Grant?" Rosa's question was impressive, yet none could mistake it.

Rose had Grant wonder if that as well was why she'd not tried to work harder to put the snot brat's lights out. "Cannot say, yet I'd love to work alongside a professional wielder of such fine equipment…"

The three; Rose, Grant and Jade stayed out this time. Richard and the two adults, had to have a talk in private on different terms.

"The rest is a mess, Wilson." Alexi ran a hand through his hairless scalp. Slade dragged Robin forward to his knees before the owner of Metropoli. "Here. A way to relieve your stress." Richard was twisted as he found, the man making sure his soldier was in the perfect position, hands and knees with his butt to Alexi. "Hum, I think I'll try something less indecent." Alexi lifted his feet up, soles hitting the tip top of the boy's spine.

Richard choked.

The General had leant him out, to become a foot rest for Alexi…..Lord Alexi was –

His arms forced themselves to stand as Slade brought out a crop to lift the teen's chin. "That is your apology to this fine gentleman for disrupting our talk. If you'd please continue, Lordship." Slade ushered the other to speak, his eyes on the papers in his hands; reports of the rebellion, no doubt. "The wayward hope that the Blue Knight still lives in this city, has not helped. I want to dismantle any attempt to pull me from my seat." Alexi was stressed, and his feet dug into Richard's shoulders with a kick, Richard gritting his teeth to not collapse as he'd be beaten for it later. Soldier, soldiers were not this raw of power. They were…were….

"The Styr country – side folk all complain of their poor leader and how he'll have them starving by the next moon." Smiled the bald dictator with a chuckle. "Roy has also left me a part of his pride. His unwed body tells of a tale; the love he's let stray as she chose to -

"That was her, why you kept her in that state she was." Slade nodded. "Jade, the outlaw child that seems to be within a few months along?"

"She'll stand by me to get what she desires. A way from this war for her child to be safe. I've given that to her, for all of the loyalties she'd rather throw away for the rebels. The Princess I heard, she's well?"

"The experimentation is slow. Her blood is rare to use, yet she is…. not a normal princess from some time. Maybe another entity. You'll see our good work in a few –

"I want her to be the reason the rebellion falls. Ra's army is massive but blind to killing aimless numbers. I have a plan, if the project goes as planned. For our latest project, "Star – Fire."

"Should he be in here to hear this?" Alexi soon looked at the straining young servant to the General. "He has less power while I'm keeping him in check. That small device is also a part of the anti – resistance measures. Science has come a very long way. With the end of the Dark Knight and Blue Knight, and the Green Archer, we have yet to see to the few more that hide from our existence. Plain as day, the boy won't willingly give that to us." Slade used his crop to have Robin's full attention. The boy's battered brow was knotted and drained all the energy he had just to hold up a one – hundred seventy-pound adult. And by will alone, he panted out, the pain making….

The General rejected the thought. He wasn't ready, not until the boy was willing to give him something greater than his word. "We'll be moving into the territory of Yok – shire (New York.) Bluddbechian forces are already marching to the finish and my soldiers in line would love nothing better than to tell the Court why I should become this world's elite. You'd agree…." Slade's eye drew up to have Alexi stiffen. "Wouldn't you, sir?"

"I, suppose. But first!" Alexi cleared his throat, feet falling from Robin's back as he stayed on his fours, shaking by the traumatic form he'd been made to shape his spine into. "First, your perfect fighters must eliminate the Blue Knight or bring him to me, alive and incapacitated."

"Which will it be, Lordship?" Slade teased the idea that he had such power at all to capture the Steel – bender himself. Alexi was all talk, yet so too was Wilson. "Alive, but barely." Alexi answered, pulling at his stuffy collar as Richard was coaxed to rise and stand beside his keeper. Weakly, he adjusted until his spine stayed that way, his painful sounds ignored as both men just nodded and shook on the deal. "You'll hunt down my sworn enemy so that I can dissect this "insect." Then, Project Starfire will commence."

"We're counting on you to crack the code on the rebel woman." Alexi noted to Slade, who was sure he could not fail. "After all, if she is not from this earth, then can the same not be said of the famed Blue Knight and the Knights of Jumperei?"

Richard tried to stay calm, but could not. His eyes were masking nothing as he and the General went away without Grant and Rosa."

"They'll be sneaking a peek at the Lord's own evidence. I want to see why he's so reluctant to have anyone else to bag him a monster." Slade muttered as Richard tried to tune out the words for a bit to rest. His back creaked and his neck throbbed still. "You'll be training in balance and endurance once we return to the base."

"Yes….sir."

Slade looked to the teen, his eyes a bit wary of that response. "Kicked puppy look? I didn't say you could tempt me, boy."

Robin gulped and shook his head. "No, sir! I'm simply worn out a bit, that's all…I'm very –

Slade's body broke the words off; Robin's master was flush to his chest. His angle far too close and with only the patch to cover his lost ways. Had ever they been subtle to begin.

"You'd be wise not to ACT. In that room, one would think you a playmate and not a killer. I didn't much care for your performance, except…" The man's hand slid over to his servant's throat, the hand there and heavy as a log across the boy's windpipe. "You made Alexi believe your lie; that you were tempting someone to pity your worthless carcass. Wayne is gone, accept it and if you do…. Your agreement with Cobb may be overturned. If you let me see to your, correction –

Robin moved his arm as his wrist swung up to bring this assault of the boy's privacy to a stop. "I'm ……here to stop a war, to become a part of it if I must. Not to show you myself that no one should see. Soldiers as you've said, bury what makes them weak." The boy's striking blue eyes had not left him longer than a few weeks. How that would be all he'd see. A spackle of blood on that cheek would have the man doubly hard for his world order.

The boy was learning, just not as he'd expected of a Wilson. But, as a Wayne.

Robin was dragged into the cellars and tied up as the cold draft froze his very bones all night. By morning, he was treated to broth and his body had returned to him. The stunt in the carriage left him more determined to see to what he could do to free his princess. Korina was no one's prop for world domination. Nor was she a key to any doorway into what the future may hold. He was dressed in a hospital gown and the one beside him looked to be young Joseph. Slade's younger child. "Hi. Did you, dress me?"

~ I did not. That was William's job. ~ The blonde replied, his eyes far away as if possessed by some unnatural force of nature. ~ You're being summoned to the rooms of the General. ~

"You're going to bring me?"

~ No. ~ Joe sat up and blinked away his off – sights of a clouded green. ~ Grant will be here, and he will not wait. ~

Slade was in his robes, a strange tale of one told by unfortunate damsels as Robin's guard was far too tall in the light of the fire – lit study. "You're awake, I see your displeasure with my appearance."

"You aren't going to touch me." Stated the boy. "I'm here under contract to fight, not to bed anyone –

"Not the way this works, Wayne."

"Call me Richard, Robin." Exclaimed the frantic teen, the fires crackling alight with a presence foreboding. "Anything else, that name. That name is not my own. It was given when I'd lived with Lord Bruce. Before my family was taken, before –

"Your panic is unappealing, are you sure?"

Robin shook his head, eyes reddened by the question. "Yes! I am, I will not be indisposed as your…..call girl to this debate! Not a day goes by that –

"You must stop."

"I won't! You used her…. her body is not a piece of equipment, I will find her. Where you've kept –

That's enough!"

Slade stomped over as Robin moved to shuffle towards the fireplace. A poker was there, his defense found as he latched onto it while Slade slunk in closer.

"I'm not a killer, not a whore! I'm not going to demean myself to our pact and you –

He shoved the stick in as blood seeped to the rug below. The General did not budge, the place being just before his Kidney. Robin clung to the poker as his fists and fingers trembled.

"Didn't feel a thing, which is why you need correction." Slade latched onto the stick, tugging it from Richard's hand as he fell back and caught himself on the fireplace. The flames making him thirsty and anxious while the bleeding beast in his way was…. undamaged.

"You…...the rumors –

"I'm alive, aren't I?" Slade snorted, pulling the stick out of his hip and torso with another swift yank, the boy's face fatigued and nauseous as the blood kept pooling. He'd never seen such a strange sight. The wound was closing up, without any need for needle and thread…

"You look faint, boy. Did I scare you?" Slade cocked his head, wondering if the shock would be recalled upon the boy's recovery.

Robin's gaze fell back as he simply fainted, Slade catching him as his body was moved to the bed in the room next to this one. His bed, as Slade watched overhead and shook his head. "You had to find out eventually, that a stake through the heart is useless against my brand of Immortality." Locking the door up, Slade left the teen to his quarters, a room after the General's. After all, he had done something that was in fact a bit of progress. He'd not resisted taking an order in that office. He was learning, and whether Wayne or Wilson, this Gray Son still had much to learn about the life ahead he was bound to follow.