Justice League of Amazons: Halo

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Chapter 22

The morning sun's light bled through the windows of the penthouse suite and slowly crept onto the large king-sized bed that held two occupants. The warm light of the sun brushed against the fist sleeping occupant, a beautiful raven-haired magician who woke up and blinked her lavender blue eyes clear of sleep. With a yawn, Zatanna Zatara stretched as much as she could, feeling her bones pop agreeably as she did so. Looking at her bed mate, the still sleeping Spartan, Zatanna gave a warm, tender smile as she looked at the almost peaceful expression he had.

Sidling up to the Spartan more closely, Zatanna wrapped an arm around John's chest and rested her head where his heart was. Hearing the soft but deep rhythmic thumping beats of the Spartan's head was soothing to the magician and she felt herself dozing off. Then she felt the Spartan's hand touch her bare shoulder causing her to look up to see the man awake and watching her.

Giving a warm if sleepy smile, Zatanna gave a greeting. "Morning, handsome," she said to him with a sleepy yawn. "Sleep well?" she enquired sweetly.

"Did you?" the Spartan asked back.

Zatanna cracked a grin and replied, "Very." Sitting up on the bed and letting the sheets fall to her lap, revealing her bare breasts to her bed mate, Zatanna said to him, "You're very warm to sleep next to."

John simply nodded as he sat up on the bed as well, stretching his arms above his head, an audible cricking of bones being heard before lowering his arms back down by his side. "It was… comfortable to sleep next to you," he admitted.

Zatanna graciously smiled and said, "Thank you. I hope I wasn't snoring the whole time."

"I did not care to notice," John said blandly in reply as he swung his legs out from the sheets and onto the floor. The Spartan then stood to his feet and began to do some stretching exercises. Zatanna smiled as she too got out of bed and slipped on a dressing gown. Reaching for the phone to call room service, Zatanna asked the Spartan, "Would you like some breakfast brought up? Or would you prefer to eat out?"

"Here is fine," replied the Master Chief as he got down onto the floor and began doing sit-ups. Zatanna raised an eyebrow but shrugged and called for room service to bring breakfast up to the room. Asking for a selection of breakfast foods, Zatanna thanked the operator and hung up the phone.

The illusionist then took a moment to watch the Master Chief do a routine of exercises from sit-ups and crunches to push-ups and planks. Soon after the doorbell rang, and Zatanna answered it, and the bellhop wheeled in a trolley bearing a selection of breakfast foods. John had already dressed himself in a pair of unisex shorts by this time when the breakfast trolley was brought to the room. Zatanna then said to him, "I didn't know what you usually have, so I got a bit of everything."

"It's fine. Anything will taste good right now," replied John as he sat down at the little glass dining table. The breakfast foods were a varied selection of typical breakfast foods from crisp fried bacon runny with grease, eggs done three ways, warm toasted bread with a selection of spreads, fried pork sausages, some fruit and some orange juice as well as coffee and tea. John took a modest helping of bacon, scrambled eggs, two sausages and toast with butter spread across it. John also took a glass of orange juice to go with his breakfast. Zatanna helped herself to some fruit and tea and shared a companionable silence with the Master Chief as they quietly broke their morning fast.

After eating breakfast, Zatanna wiped her lips daintily with a napkin and said to the Spartan, "Well, that was very good. Did you enjoy it?" Her lavender blue eyes sparkled at John who nodded in reply.

"It was fine."

"Really?" Zatanna deadpanned and the Master Chief nodded in response. "Hm." The magician shrugged accepting the response and said, "Well, I have to do a matinée show before we head back to the Watchtower. I don't suppose you want to watch?"

"I suppose I could watch," said the Spartan as he rose to his feet to get dressed while Zatanna moved to the shower to wash and prepare for the morning matinée show she was to perform.

After getting dressed, the pair of them then left the penthouse and headed for the theatre. John was shown to a private box where he could watch the performance. The attending crowd wasn't as big as last night's audience, but it was a decent sized.

John then waited as the lights dimmed and with a display of lights, Zatanna appeared to greet the crowd.

"Good morning, Las Vegas! How's everybody doing?" the magician cried out enthusiastically as the attending crowd cheered as she began the morning matinée.

The morning matinée was different from last night as Zatanna performed escape artistry instead of illusions. From being tied up in a strait jacket, handcuffed, placed in a locked trunk and submerged water, Zatanna would escape from her bonds and appear elsewhere. John applauded the performance, impressed with the display of escapology performed by Zatanna.

Soon the closing act was performed. Blindfolded, cuffed from head to toe and locked in a steel trunk that was wrapped in thick industrial chains and padlocked in multiple spots. To add to it, industrial steel saws were set to high speed to saw through the whole thing. Although he did not say it aloud, the Spartan was slightly concerned as to how Zatanna intended to escape from such bonds unscathed.

The crowd watched with bated breath as the steel saws with an ear splitting scream and shower of red hot sparks cut through the steel trunk and the chains wrapped around it. Smoke filled the stage before the saws finally went through the metal box. Some technicians and stagehands appeared with fire extinguishers to put out any flames that sprung from errant sparks. Then an assistant opened the container and to the awe of the audience (and to John's mild surprise), the occupant within was nowhere to be found.

"Looking for me?" Zatanna's voice echoed in the theatre playfully as the spotlight swivelled to shine on the magician standing at the theatre entrance door, no worse for wear and a brilliant smile on her lips. The crowd cheered wildly, marvelling and wondering just how she had escaped what was certain death. John, too, was perplexed at how the stage magician had escaped from her confines.

With the final closing act, Zatanna gave a gracious bow to the audience before exiting the stage. Rising from his seat, John prepared to head for Zatanna's dressing room. Soon after, the Master Chief found the magician signing some autographs for some young girls, signing theatre programs and posters for the awestruck children and answering questions. John stood back so as not to interfere. But then one of the young girls spotted the Master Chief and uttered, "The Spartan!" All the young girls turned and looked even more awestruck as John quietly sighed and strode calmly forward. Zatanna smiled as she enjoyed the slightly consternated expression John had on his face as the young girls tried to swarm him, asking for autographs and selfies.

"Did you enjoy the show?" Zatanna asked the Spartan over the clamour of requests from the young women.

"I'm curious just how you escaped a literal deathtrap," John admitted as he tried to not look put-off by the young women clamouring for his attention.

"Let a girl keep some secrets," Zatanna said with a playful wink. Looking at her adoring fans (and apparently John's too), the magician told them, "Well, the Spartan and I would love to stay and chat with you all, but we have places to be." This was met with a noise of protest from the young girls.

Zatanna smiled indulgently at the disappointment of her fans and offered, "Well, how about one final selfie? With me and the Spartan?" John raised an eyebrow at this, while the fangirls all cheered and agreed enthusiastically. Using some wordless magic, Zatanna levitated everyone's phone cameras to face them as they all huddled around the Master Chief who looked awkward as could be.

"Say cheese!"

"CHEESE!"

The picture was taken and Zatanna smiled brilliantly as the phones were returned to their owners and the fangirls all skipped away chattering animatedly about how they were going to post the pictures on social media.

John gave the magician a look and asked her, "Was it really necessary to do that?" The tone he spoke with was light, but Zatanna could tell that he was a little annoyed by what she did.

"Well, it might not have been," she conceded before adding, "But it helps with your public image. You don't want people thinking you're some kind of robotic soldier that has no social life, do you?"

"I am a soldier. Made to do things others cannot," the Spartan said stoically, not out of pride but a statement of fact.

Zatanna sighed before saying, "I know this will probably be ignored, but it wouldn't kill you to be a little more sociable and to interact with civilians more often. Plus you could try to smile more. People feel more at ease when you smile."

"And I find something intrinsically wrong with that statement," John stated bluntly.

"How so?" Zatanna asked in genuine curiosity.

"The Joker when he still lived would smile at his victims, did he not?" the Spartan said. "As do serial rapists, killers and psychopaths. They often smile at their potential victims to make them feel at ease," he declared.

Zatanna opened her mouth to refute that, but she honestly couldn't fault John's logic. Reluctantly, the illusionist nodded in admission, saying, "I suppose you're right, but it's all about how you smile that sets the tone."

"If you say so," John said with a shrug.

"Well, let's put a pin on this conversation and continue it later. I'm starving right now and could do with something to eat before we head back to the Watchtower," Zatanna said with a grumble.

"Very well, then," John said in agreement. "Where do you wish to attain sustenance?" he asked.

Zatanna was about to reply to this when a loud explosion interrupted her. Then came some panicked screams of civilians.

"What on Earth?" the magician asked and John was already running out to where the noise had come from with Zatanna trailing after him.

John had already pulled out his handgun and checked the magazine to make sure it was loaded. Weaving through the rushing crowd of panicking civilians, John arrived at a curious scene. One of the casinos was overgrown with plant life, and said plant life was actively moving and even taking on animal and even humanoid forms consisting of leaves, branches, roots, flowers and thorns.

Zatanna caught up with the Spartan and saw the sight before them. With a sigh, the magician commented, "Only one person I know can do this."

Knowing who Zatanna and having read detailed files on all of Earth's metahuman criminals, John said, "Poison Ivy."

"Do you want to call for backup?" Zatanna asked him, gently touching his elbow with a manicured hand.

John did not respond as he went in, aiming down the smart scope of his pistol.

"Knock 'em dead, cowboy," Zatanna quipped humorously as she watched the Spartan approach the prowling plant creatures with no fear.

Dr Pamela Isley AKA Poison Ivy was having a good day. She and her friends Harley Quinn had arrived in Las Vegas with the intent of robbing the casino vaults and getting a big fat pay day for themselves. As bad as she felt for even thinking it, Pamela honestly had to thank that Amazon harlot Aresia for getting rid of Earth's male population as it certainly made committing crimes much easier without having to worry about the likes of Batman & Robin breathing down her neck. And even with the remaining female heroes like Batgirl picking up the slack, they could only do so much.

"Harley! Have you cracked the vault yet?" Pamela asked her partner.

"Gimme a minute, would ya?!" Harley hollered back as she placed C4 explosives on the Casino Vault door before plugging in the detonating wires. "Bombs away!" Harley exclaimed with a manic smile as she stood a few feet and pressed the detonation switch.

With an ear-shattering explosion, the plastic explosives blew open the vault door and with a heavy groaning sound, the vault fell from its hinges, revealing the profits of the casino within.

"Grab everything and haul ass!" Ivy ordered as she tossed some bags at Harley. They began stuffing all the stacks of cash into their loot bags. Then Ivy felt her 'children' talk to her. "What?" Ivy looked at a nearby flower which shuddered and shook. "Shit!" the human-plant hybrid cursed. "We got trouble!"

"What kinda trouble?" Harley asked as she stuffed as much money as she could into her bags. "Thought your babies took care of security," she remarked.

"Only man left in the world trouble. And he means business!" Ivy replied.

"The Spartan? What's he doing in Vegas?" Harley asked her jaw dropping.

"Doesn't matter. He's here, and we need to move!" Ivy reminded her partner. Mentally commanding some of her children to come to them, Ivy mounted a large Venus flytrap plant and said to Harley, "Get on!" The harlequin themed villainess climbed onto the plant beside Ivy as it began to move out of the Vault.

"We head for the roof, Roxy will be waiting for us," Ivy told Harley when a bullet suddenly grazed her right cheek. Giving a sharp cry, Ivy looked to see the Spartan standing in the ruins of the casino with his pistol aimed straight at them.

"That was a warning shot. You won't get another," the Spartan said coldly to the two Gotham criminals.

"Heh, cute," Harley grinned as she pulled out a comically large popgun revolver and fired it at the Spartan. What most didn't realise was that the oversized cork that was fired from the barrel was actually an explosive that would detonate on impact. Unfortunately for Harley, the Master Chief had read her file, including the details of her usual arsenal and quickly fired a round at the giant cork.

As soon as the .50 calibre hollow point bullet struck the cork in the centre, the cork exploded.

"Wh-what? No way!" Harley exclaimed in surprise before hastily loading another explosive cork into the barrel of her gun. Ivy snarled as she mentally commanded her children to handle the Spartan, figuring that without his armour protecting him, her plants would make short work of him.

Ivy's children, taking the forms of wild animals, circled the Master Chief who pulled out his combat knife, the serrated tanto-styled blade gleaming in the light. With a roaring rustling leaves, Ivy's children attacked John who began slashing away with his large knife. Leaves were shredded and roots and branches reduced to kindling as the monomolecular edged blade of the Spartan's combat knife sliced plant matter apart.

Hearing the silent cries of her babies incensed Ivy and her expression was one of absolutely fury, like that of a mother bear seeing her cubs being harmed. "You… stinking bag of meat!" she screamed as her pale green flesh became a darker more woody hue and thorns grew from her arms as she leapt down from her spot, intent on killing the male human harming her children.

Hearing Ivy's howl of anger, John aimed down the scope of his sidearm and fired multiple shots into her body. Strangely, Ivy's transformation granted her greater protection against ballistics, although small chunks of her flesh were blown off. Whether it was her partial transformation or the nature of her metahuman status, Ivy had a greater pain threshold than the average human being as she attempted to slash at the Spartan with her thorn covered arms. John avoided the wild haymakers Ivy threw at him, before grabbing her wrist and twisted her arm into a half-Nelson. Gritting her teeth, Ivy sprouted some thorn out of her back and grinned victoriously as she felt her thorns pierce the Spartan's body.

Chief felt the thorns sink into his flesh before kicking the metahuman woman off of him. Opting for his knife, John slashed into Poison Ivy's flesh. Cutting deeply into Pamela's body, the blade of John's knife was coated with thick yellow green sap before he thrust the blade deeply into the plant woman's chest where her heart would be. Ivy barely grunted, she simply pulled herself in close to the Spartan and pressed her lips to his. Pouring enough toxins to kill an elephant into her kiss, Ivy staggered back, grinning victoriously. "Have a nice trip!" she gloated.

The veins in Johns bulged and darkened, but he simply frowned and decked Pamela in the face with a single punch. The force behind the Spartan's punch was what he considered a gentle tap, but for Pamela Isley, it was enough to render her unconscious.

"IVY!?" Harley screamed in anger as she leapt down with a baseball and swung wildly at the Spartan hoping that her friend's poison kiss would weaken the man considerably. John caught the thick aluminium haft of the disgraced psychiatrist's weapon and with the force of his being, he crushed the weapon in his fingers. Harley gave an audible gulping sound as she swallowed a lump in her throat as she released her bat with nerveless fingers. Looking up at the giant of a man that was the Master Chief, Harley stuttered out, "D-Don't suppose you'd be willing to talk this out, huh?"

John quirked an eyebrow before aiming his pistol straight at Harley's head, right between her eyes. Harley almost wet her tights on the spot from fear and then suddenly a musical voice called out.

"Dnib yelraH ni sniahc!"

Thick titanium chains appeared and wrapped themselves around the harlequin themed criminal. Harley floundered for a moment before crashing to the floor. Zatanna walked into the room, her wand in her fingers and she looked at Master Chief. "Chief? You've been poisoned!" she cried out in alarm.

"I noticed," John said dryly in response. His movements were slightly sluggish.

"Sit down and stay still," the magician ordered him urgently. "I don't know how strong a dose you got, but you don't want to make it worse by moving around," she told him worriedly.

"I'm fine," the Spartan replied.

"Don't 'I'm fine' me!" Zatanna reprimanded. "Ivy must've put enough poison in you to kill an elephant! It's a miracle you're still standing!" she exclaimed as she put a finger to her communicator to let the Watchtower know that John had been poisoned and needed urgent medical attention.

A few moments later, Hawkgirl, Huntress and Dr Light appeared via Zeta-Tube, bearing a medkit that had the necessary antidote the toxin Poison Ivy secreted into her kisses.

"Are you alright?" Shayera asked John. "Can you still speak?" she asked slowly.

"I'm fine," John said dourly in response a little annoyed at how worried everyone was over him. He had a feeling that Cortana was going to give him the dressing down of his life when she heard about this.

Dr Light worked smoothly and quickly as she prepared the catheter system to inject the anti-toxin into the Spartan's bloodstream to counter the toxin. The Japanese scientist/heroine commented, "You're lucky you're alive, you know? Even the likes of Batman wouldn't be able to withstand the amount of toxins in your blood right now."

"Spartan augmentations," John said bluntly.

"I figured as much," Kimiyo remarked dryly as she measured the precise dose of anti-toxin into the catheter before gently piercing the vein in the Spartan's elbow to feed the antidote into him.

"Hell of a mess in here," Huntress commented as she looked at the still unconscious Poison Ivy and the bound and gagged Harley Quinn. "What were these two idiots doing here?" the Italian-American woman asked.

"Guess they were trying to rob the casino vault," Zatanna answered. "They probably weren't banking on me and Chief being here, or simply didn't know it," she added wryly.

The Las Vegas Police Department arrived to detain Ivy and Harley, and along with them was a familiar sight. Amanda Waller, dressed in a neat blue dress suit, accompanied by a young woman wearing an outfit that resembled a combination of a ninja and samurai with a white half mask over the top half of her face and armed with a katana.

"Great. Her!" Helena muttered in distaste with a sigh.

Amanda strode over to the Spartan and the Leaguers and said, "Fancy seeing you here of all places, Spartan." The head of Cadmus's tone was light and almost conversational making one wonder whether she was being sarcastic or not.

"Why are you here?" Shayera asked getting right to the point, not in the mood for mind games.

"My sources told me that the Spartan was here and when Dr Quinzel and Dr Isley tried to rob the casino vault and were apprehended by the Spartan, I thought I'd come in person to… touch base, as it were," Amanda replied not giving anything away with a bland look in her dark brown eyes.

"What do you want, Mrs Waller ma'am?" John asked as he felt the anti-toxin work through his system, cleansing him of Ivy's toxin.

"Can't I just have a normal conversation with you?" Amanda asked back.

"You can, but we both know you always have an agenda. What do you want?"

"Fine, can tell you're not the sort for idle chitchat, so I'll get right to the point. I've had my own team of spies stationed in Corto Maltese and they've informed me of your own team looking for Ivo's android," Amanda said bluntly.

"You're spying on us?!" Huntress growled angrily and the other Leaguers also had angry looks on their face.

John, having expected such a thing from Amanda, asked, "And what are your intentions in Corto Maltese?"

"Given the fact that Intergang has muscled in and made Corto Maltese their staging point between North and South America, it was prudent to have a team stationed there to keep the United States Government appraised of the goings on in the country," replied Amanda. "And given how our own sources have informed us that Ivo's android is somewhere in the country, we knew that you would have your teammates try to find and secure it," she said.

"And what do you intend to do with the android?" Shayera asked suspiciously.

"One can imagine the potential of the android should it be activated," Amanda said blandly. "Ivo did intend the android as a means of cheating, did he not? Who knows what else it's capable of?" she mused.

"And you intend to add it to your arsenal, don't you?" Dr Light asked almost accusingly.

"In this day and age, it pays to have an edge over the competition," Amanda said with a slightly superior smirk.

"Is that what we are? Competition?" Shayera asked getting annoyed at the word games Waller was playing.

"Competition is healthy," Amanda said almost snidely.

"Depends who you're competing with," Shayera retorted darkly.

"You still have not said what you want, so say it," John said to Amanda.

Amanda looked at the Master Chief and asked, "Aren't you tired of playing hero with the Justice League? All the chasing cowboys and Indians? The heroics?"

"And your point is?"

"You're a soldier. You don't belong with costumed crimefighters anymore than you would at a Sunday barbeque," Amanda replied.

"You're here with an offer," John said getting at what Amanda was saying.

"Yes," Amanda confirmed with a slight smile. "I'm putting together a team of my own to combat threats to global security and I want you to lead that team," she said to John.

"You want the Chief out playing spy and assassin for you?" Zatanna asked with a look of distaste on her face.

"It is the silent blade that keeps the peace and ends wars before they can begin, Miss Zatara," Amanda said cuttingly. "You can't exactly keep the peace with costumed theatrics you heroes engage in on a near daily basis," she added.

"Without us, you people would be up to your necks in crime," Huntress spat.

"And it's because of people like me that the world keeps spinning," Amanda said coldly. "You heroes half-ass the job and pat yourselves on the back thinking you've saved the day. But my people have saved the world a dozen times over."

"Enough, we are not here to argue about who saves the world more times," John said quietly but with enough force to quell a rampaging Brute as he rose to his feet. "Why do you want me to lead this team of yours?" he asked Amanda directly.

"Because you have the most experience in leading black-op missions. Or am I wrong?"

John was silent at this; he wouldn't deny that Amanda had guessed correctly that he had experience in leading black-op missions. It was what Spartans like him were trained for and made for. And the offer of doing something so familiar to him was a tempting one.

"I will think about it," John said to Amanda after a moment of silence. Hawkgirl and the others looked at him in shock and surprise. Amanda had a slightly triumphant smirk on her lips.

"When can I expect your decision?" the head of Cadmus asked.

"I will think about it," John said stonily.

"Very well. I look forward to your decision, Spartan," Amanda said as she turned around and walked off.

Shayera looked at the Master Chief and asked, "Chief, why? Are you seriously considering that woman's offer?"

"I'll explain later," John said quietly.

"Fine, and it better be a good one," Shayera said with a serious look at the Spartan as they prepared to head back to the Watchtower.

TO BE CONTINUED…

A/N: Chapter 22 is done and dusted. I hope you all enjoyed it and that we got to see a little action in this one. And it looks like Master Chief is seriously considering joining Amanda Waller and Cadmus.

And in other news, I have something of an idea for this story and it can also be applied to my other Justice League of Amazons crossovers. My idea is bringing in GI Joe and its related material into the story, but I'm trying to decide what route to go with the idea. To that end, I've set up a voting poll on my profile with two options/routes to explore. The first route is to already have GI Joe a part of the JLoA universe but all the male Joes have died to Aresia's Virus with the remaining female members now working for Cadmus under Amanda Waller. The second route is to have Master Chief end up in the GI Joe universe via an experimental teleporter and needing the help of GI Joe to get back. So if you have not already, please cast your vote once I feel it gets high enough, I'll go with whichever option is the highest voted.

And with that said, that's all I have, so I'll see all next time.

Be kind to one another,

Angry lil' elf.