Justice League of Amazons: Halo
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Chapter 15
Dinah pushed her sunglasses up higher on the bridge of her nose and rolled her shoulder as the strap of her bag dug into the bare flesh slightly. So far, nothing had gone wrong once she and her team arrived at the airport. It was a little barebones with a lack of people, but there was still a sizable amount of people coming and going, leaving or boarding their flights. Thankfully, no-one had recognised Diana as the Amazon had chosen to don a wig of auburn hair and was wearing large sunglasses to hide her eyes. For her disguise, Dinah had done her mane of gold blonde hair in a high ponytail and wore a somewhat stereotypical tourist regalia. Her Black Canary uniform was concealed in her suitcase along with some other items needed for the mission.
Making their way to the front desk, Dinah presented her passport, a falsified one that Cortana had made her and the others. The receptionist scanned the barcode of the ID and the screen flashed green. Nodding in thanks and secretly relieved that the passport had been good enough to bypass the first security measures, Dinah then proceeded to head for the TSA screening where luggage would be scanned for any contraband or weapons. Depositing her bag on the conveyor belt, along with her suitcase, Dinah allowed herself to be scanned by the security guard who ran the scanner over her arms, legs and torso.
Finding nothing illegal on her, the security guard allowed Dinah to pass through the gates. Dinah then collected her luggage and made her way to the waiting lounge. Finding an empty couch, Dinah sat down and waited for her teammates to arrive. Moments later, Barbara and Diana joined her on the couch.
"Any troubles?" the blonde asked them.
Barbara shook her head. "Nothing, except for someone holding up the line when they found some fruit on her," she said to Dinah.
"And so far, no-one has seen through my disguise," Diana said in a hushed tone of voice.
"Good." Dinah nodded her head in satisfaction. "Our flight will be board in an hour's time. You got your tickets?" she asked and her teammates showed their tickets. Again, Dinah nodded, satisfied that everything was going smoothly for them.
After buy a light breakfast of croissants and coffee, the three heroines then prepared to board the plane that would take them to Corto Maltese. Given the relatively low numbers of passengers and the comparatively short distance the archipelago island nation was from America, the aeroplane wasn't anything grand in size. And when board the plane, the three heroines were mildly surprised to see that the plane wasn't completely booked out. But it wasn't too surprising given the state of the world and there still looked to be a sizable number of passengers aboard, mostly young women, college students looking to spend some vacation time away from home, with a small smattering of mothers and their children.
Finding their seats, Dinah loaded her luggage in the overhead compartment and sat down in her seat. After her teammates took their seats as well, they then waited for the time the plane would begin its take-off sequence. Once all the passengers had checked in and taken their seats, the pilot introduced herself to everyone via the speaker system, giving the usual routine of safety checks and the stewardesses demonstrated to everyone how to correctly put on seatbelts and such.
After the demonstration, everyone settled in as the plane began to roll out onto the airstrip. Then with a growing roar as the engines built up speed, the plane took off into the air. Dinah released the breath she hadn't realised she had been holding.
"Okay, so far so good," Dinah whispered to her team. "The next hard bit will be getting past customs at Corto Maltese airport and with Intergang running the show, there'll be a lot of security," she told them.
"Let's hope the passports Cortana created for us will bypass their security measures," Diana intoned. "I don't relish the idea of fighting through the security as soon as we land," she stated.
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Barbara sighed. "I've never done anything like this before," she said nervously.
"Neither have I," Dinah told the redhead comfortingly. "Have you?" she asked looking at Diana who shook her head.
"I am more used to direct confrontations and fights rather than sneaking around in the shadows or hiding in plain sight," the Amazon admitted.
"Guess it'll be a series of firsts for us all," Dinah said wryly. "Anyway, we'd better get some rest on this flight. We're not going to get much of it," she added grimly. Her team nodded in agreement and prepared to get some rest. Diana tilted her seat back in an attempt to get some shut-eye. Barbara took out her computer tablet to check up on some emails. Dinah chose to peruse the selection of movies available to watch and chose one at random.
Hours later, the plane touched down at the airport of Corto Maltese. Taking their luggage from the overhead compartments, the three heroines trudged out of the plane with the other passengers.
"Eyes up. We got trouble," Dinah whispered to her team as she saw some Z8-A androids, refitted for combat roles, armed with assault rifles and fitted with additional protective armour plating. The clanking footsteps of the mechanicals as they approached had some of the arrivals looking very nervous and mothers clutched their children closely. Then a female security guard, one with a look of superiority and her ethnicity did not match that of a native to Corto Maltese, strutted out like she owned the place. A smarmy smile was on the woman's face as she addressed the arrivals.
"Welcome to Corto Maltese, everyone. I hope you all enjoyed your flight here," she announced. "Now, if you would all please make your way to the check-in, we can get things running," she informed them all.
"What do you think this is?" Barbara whispered to her teammates.
"A shake-down of some kind," Dinah replied with a knowing look. "She's obviously an Intergang stooge collecting funds for her bosses and if someone doesn't have the money to make a 'donation', that's when there's problems," she explained.
"Do we have any money to make a donation?" Diana asked with some distaste at the idea of having to bribe their way in to the country.
"Yeah. Hopefully, it's enough," Dinah said as she patted her bag where a wad of local currency was stashed as Cortana had foreseen the possibility of such a thing arising.
"Let's hope," Barbara said with a grim look as the line slowly progressed to the check-in. Soon the three heroines stood at the check-in with the Intergang woman smiling smugly, holding out her hand to take their tickets. With a terse smile, Dinah and her companions presented their tickets and passports. In each of their passports were some folded bills of Corto Maltese Pesos and American dollars.
The Intergang representative, taking their tickets and passports, spoke to them, "Your trip to Corto Maltese; business, or pleasure?" she asked them politely with a smile that didn't reach her eyes as she scanned the tickets and examined passports.
"Pleasure," Dinah answered for them. The Intergang took out the local and American currency with a nod of satisfaction.
"Enjoy your stay."
Taking back their passports, Dinah and the others left the airport. The tropical climate was immediately felt on the three Justice Leaguers. The air was hot and humid and it was filled with the cacophony of people going about their business among the bustling streets. Honks of cars and scooters mingled with the buzzing sound of people conversing in local dialects and thrown were the sounds of horses, cattle, goats and chickens that roamed the roads.
"Okay, hard part is over," Dinah said to her teammates. "We check into our hotel and go over the next phase of our plan," she relayed to them.
Hailing a cab, the three climbed into a cab and asked the driver to take them to their hotel. The hotel they were staying, while not the ritziest hotel, it was comfortable enough for their needs. Upon arrival, the heroines checked into their rooms and met in Dinah's room where she laid out a map of the capitol Corto Maltese and some other notes about the city.
"Okay, so our strongest lead at finding Ivo's android is Jotunheim," Dinah told her teammates. The facility is located in the eastern part of the capitol. So far, it's the strongest lead we have at finding Ivo's creation, but I won't rule out their being other places it might be stashed in."
"How do we get into Jotunheim? They're not going to exactly let us walk in through the front door," Barbara pointed out.
"Wouldn't be easy if they did?" Dinah joked dryly and Barbara & Diana all chuckled at how nice the idea would be of being allowed to enter the complex freely. "Luckily, some old schematics of Jotunheim's layout gives us a couple of entry points to use," she then said. Bringing out a blueprint of Jotunheim, Dinah pointed to the entry points that were marked.
"We can enter the facility through the old sewer system in an old drainage pipe by the sea; it'll be submerged at nightfall, giving us hopefully better cover," Dinah told them.
"And the other?" Diana asked.
"At the back of the facility is the docking bay where delivery trucks come and go dropping off or collecting something," Dinah replied. "What they're dropping off and collecting, I don't know, but it can't be any good," she said grimly.
"The sewer system would be the easiest way to infiltrate the building and it's possible that it's unguarded," Barbara said putting a hand to her chin in thought. "But if we in through the docking bay, we might be able to learn what it is they're doing," she added.
"It's your call, Dinah. How do you want to do this?" Diana asked the team leader.
Dinah thought about it for a moment before speaking. "The docking bay might be risky, but it's worth going through, if only to learn what they're delivering," she stated.
"Okay, so we'll need to hijack one of their trucks. How do we do that?" Diana asked.
"For that, we'll need to get in touch with Clara Gonzalez, the fearless leader of the Corto Maltese resistance," Dinah said. "The resistance is said to be hidden somewhere in the jungles, but we'll need a guide to take us to them," she added.
"Where could we find a guide who'll take us to the resistance?" Barbara asked.
"The local bars will be a start. The locals might not have too much love for their current overlords, so hopefully we'll find one willing to lead us to the guerillas," said Dinah as she folded up her map and notes of Corto Maltese.
"We'll hit the town after nightfall. The locals will obviously be out in force by then, so get some rest," Dinah advised her companions. Diana and Barbara then went back to their rooms to get some rest and cool off from the tropical climate.
TO BE CONTINUED…
A/N: There! Chapter fifteen of this story is done and dusted, and I sincerely apologise for this chapter being so short, but it was a struggle trying to figure out what I wanted to write for this chapter, hence I only did this little bit. Hopefully the next chapter will have some more content and perhaps some action as well.
In other news, I've set up a romance poll for my GoT/Elder Scrolls crossover A Young Griff's Guide to Skryim, so feel free to cast your vote if you haven't already.
But other than that, I haven't got too much more to say about this chapter.
Be kind to one another,
Angry lil' elf.