keeper [rick flag]

Chapter 8

A/N: thank you so much for 100 reads, i know its not a lot but I am really grateful for it! Thanks you! Now on with the story...

The hair whips around Rylands face, and she pushes it out of the way. The events of the night before had shaken her to the core, but she was going to be strong - she had to, if she wanted to rescue their sister-

Rick holds her hand as they step out of the Helicopter.

Ryland stares around in sadness. Families are together, crying. People are lying in cots, their heads bandaged, and Ryland can't help but feel responsible for doing all this harm. It was, after all, the witch inside of her that had done all that.

Rick, sensing her guilt, touches her hand gently.

"All of this, it isn't you. It's Keeper" He says, staring at her.

Ryland nods and holds his hand back.

"I know. But I can't help but feel like if I did all this" She says, gesturing to the commotion.

Rick nods and stares ahead, walking with a more dangerous stride.

"Stay behind me, Ryland, please" He says.

Ryland walks behind Rick, another hand full of guards trailing behind them.

An officer nears Rick.

"What's going on in that city?" He asks. He makes eye contact with Ryland and points to her " who's that?"

Rick ignores him, and continues walking.

"Those assholes here yet?" He says, his voice strained.

"Yeah, they're here" The officer says turning around to face Rick again.

They all round the corner, and there they are.

3 people, strapped in chairs stare back at them. Well, four, as KC is carried into the picture.

"What the hell Flag?" The officer asks in surprise.

But all Rick does is stare. He keeps a straight face, and looks at Killer Croc for a second. Then he looks back at the officer.

"Unlock 'em"

Harley streches, holding her arms up and humming gleefully.

She looks at all of the guards surrounding them and smiles.

"Hi boys!" She says in a high voice. She looks at Ryland for a second, and her smile widens. "Hey sweety. Harley Quinn, how'd you do?" She says, holding her hand out to Ryland.

Ryland makes a move to shake her hand, but Rick slaps Harley's hand out of the way.

Harley laughs and holds her hand.

"OOOO. What do we have here?" She says with giggle as she looks as Rick.

Ryland pulls her hand back slowly, and drops it besides her.

She looks at Chato, then at KC, then at Deadshot.

"huh?" Harley says. Everyone turns to look at her "What was that? I should kill everyone and escape?" She looks at the guards in a sraight face before it breaks into a wicked smile. She chuckles "Sorry" She touches her head with her finger "It's the voices"

There's a moment of silence. Then Harley turns to Ryland, who has a and laughs "Im kidding! geez!" She shakes her head "That's not what they really said"

Rick starts walking towards the guards who are carrying a duffel bag.

Deadshot nods towards Ryland.

"How'd you do?" He asks.

Ryland looks at him and smiles breifly "FIne, thanks" She mutters the last words.

Deadshot looksa t her. She doesn't seem dangerous, quite the opposite, she looks quite fragile. But he could never be sure what someone could be capable of.

Ryland clears her throat and looks at Rick, who is ripping up the duffel bag.

He stands up.

"Welcome to the party, Captain Boomerang"

A man struggles to get out of the duffel bag, and when he does, he turns around and punches the first person he sees, which causes two other soldier to pin him into a wall.

Rick holds his neck, and Captain Boomerang holds his hands up.

Rick stares at him

"Calm down:

"Hey, one minute i'm playing mahjong with me nanna and this red streak hits me out of nowhere" He says in an incredulous tone.

"Shut up! You got caught robbing a diamond exchange"

"I wos not!"

Rick pulls back, and watches as a black van pulls up into the compound.

Deadshot stares at the van pulling up, as does Ryland. She is getting a laugh out Rick kicking all of their asses.

"Here comes Slipknot, the man who can climb anything. Wonderful" He says, in an unamused voice.

The door opens and out comes a man in chains.

"Have a good time, scumbag" The lady holding open the door says.

Slipknot looks at her before throwing his fists at her, causing her to fall to the ground.

Ryland flinches back, but quickly recovers, not wanting to show fear.

"Ohhh" Deadshot says, wincing.

Slipknot looks at them.

"She had a mouth" He says simply.

Harley smiles and laughs. Then she looks at Ryland.

"She had a mouth!" She says, amuesmetn in her eyes.

"Listen up! IN your necks" Rick makes a pause and looks at all of them "The injections you got. It's a nanite explosive. The size of a rice brain, but powerful as a hand granade" He looks breifly to Deadshot.

"You disobey me, you die." He points to Ryland "You mess with her, you die. You try to escape, you die. You otherwise irritate of vex me, guess what? You die" He says with a straight face.

Harley raises her hand "I'm known to be quite vexing. I'm just forewarning you"

Rick looks at her "Lady, Shut Up!" He ye;;s.

"This is the deal" He says. He looks breifly towards Ryland, who happens to be looking at the ground. "You're going somwhere very bad, to do something that'll get you killed. " He laughs "But until that happens, you're my problem!"

Deadshot scratches his head "So was that a uh, pep talk?" He questions.

"Yeah. That was a pep talk" He points besides him "There's your shit. Grab what you need for a fight. We're wheels up in 10"

He starts to walk away, and motions for Ryland to follow, but Deadshot stops him

" You might wanna work on your team motivation thing. You ever heard of Phil Jackson?"

"Yeah"

"He's like the goal standard. Okay? Triangle bitch. Study"

Rick walks away without a word, motioning for Ryland to follow. She walks after him, and looks back at Deadshot and the rest.

She gives them a small smile and waves, heading off.

The rest of them look at her for a second, amazed that someone like her could ever be waving, much less smiling at them.

Then they all kick into action, each of them putting their uniforms.