Itachi looked up at the sky, 'Superman is back. Now that the Gods have left things will go back to normal.' Itachi walked up the steps of Plastic Man's home, and was about to knock, but the door opened.
Plastic Man recoiled back, "Itachi? What are you doing here? You're not here to recruit me to the Resistance are you?"
He shook his head, "No, I'm here to help you get your son back."
Plastic Man waved a hand, "We don't need to do that. I'm sure that Supes can abuse his power for an old friend and just let him out."
Itachi offered a friendly smirk, "You don't really believe that, do you?"
He shrugged, "Well a man's gotta hope, doesn't he?"
Itachi offered a hand, "We have a plan that incorporates your abilities already. Don't worry it'll be in and out with no sign that any of us were there."
Plastic Man sighed, "Alright. I'm in. I was going to break in as a backup plan anyways."
After a little bit of traveling, they arrived in Atlantis. Itachi turned to Plastic Man, "Patrick, Aquaman is in the war room and can catch you up on the plan."
Plastic Man left and Zatanna approached Itachi, "I heard that you had wanted to talk to me privately."
He nodded, "Yes..... do you think that you could convert my Chakra into pure spiritual energy?"
Zatanna put a hand on her chin, "Maybe, although it'll be difficult."
"Just so you know, my Chakra is made up of half physical energy, and half spiritual energy. Does that help at all?"
She nodded, "That should help, but what do you need me to do that for anyways?"
"I'm going to revive Lois."
Her eyes went wide, "You'll..... what?" She shook her head, "Bringing back people from the dead is already risky.... and they never come back the same."
"Maybe among you magic users. Although where I come from, as long as you have a DNA sample of the person you want to revive you can reanimate them."
"How do you know about such a technique?"
I've had a lot of exposure to it. I was even on the receiving end of it once. It isn't a complex jutsu, figuring out how it works is simple."
Her head tilted, "You.... were reanimated?"
"It's a long story, one I can tell you about another time..... although another thing you should know is that using this jutsu requires a sacrifice."
She backed away a bit, "A.... sacrifice? I don't want to help kill someone, Itachi."
Itachi's eyes narrowed, "Zatanna. Do you want this war to end?"
"Yes, but"-"There are no buts. All other options have been exhausted. Batman has gone from getting help from the space police, to giving himself to a demon,, to allowing himself with actual God's. And he's failed at every turn resulting in more and more of us dying. Eventually he may succeed, but how many more of us will be dead by then? I can end everything without any more heroes dying."
She looked off to the side, "I'll.... think about it."
"That's alright, I won't need to do this for a while."
Zatanna disappeared and Itachi made his way to the center of the where everyone was besides Plastic Man and Aquaman, 'The only thing that is really hard about Reanimation Jutsu will be using another source besides Chakra, although hopefully this plan will work... later when she's ready I'll have to have her revive the rest of the villains too after I kill them.'
"Manhunter, Red Robin, Superboy, Wonder Girl, Starfire. Are you all ready?" They all nodded. "It seems like the Regime is back in order after Batman's failed alliance with the God's. Which brings everything back to square one," Tim winced hearing the words, although he knew it was true. "Everyone. Before we go, I will reveal what my main goal is... before the nuke destroyed Metropolis, I was a part of the Justice League for one year. I had helped them take down a lot of villians in the past. I was still adjusting to this new world and just went with what the heroes wanted me to do... we may be from different worlds, although part of me knew from the start that it was all insanity. The League always waited to respond to a threat, never attacking it first. They would take them down and put them in a useless normal cell instead of something like the Phantom Zone knowing full well that they'll escape. And then they would forget about them until they escaped to put them back in and start it all over again. On the Battlefield they'd give half hearted words about how the villain could do better and be good, yet they wouldn't care at all about the rehabilitative progress of these villains, and if they were getting what they needed or not. They only care about the villains when they have to fight them, resulting in the deaths of more and more families, and more buildings being destroyed." he pointed at Wonder Girl and Superboy, "That's why I've had you seperate those that have a chance at good from those that don't..... I don't agree with Superman's inevitable One World Government, although once it's gone all of these villains will be set loose on the world and start it all over again.... I'm not going to let that happen. Which is why I'm killing all of the ones that can never change."
All of the heroes in the room were smart enough to have figured this out on their own over time. Manhunter's expression remained blank, although the Young Titans put their hands on their knees and head and looked down. A part of them knew what they were doing, but they had wanted to act like it wasn't real. Although after hearing it verbalized, they couldn't deny it any longer. They were going to be complicit in a mass murder. Although they felt like there was no other way.
Plastic Man and Aquaman came out of the war room. Itachi looked at Tim, "Tim. Could you tell us the whole plan one more time?"
Tim wiped the cold sweat off of his hands, "Yeah. First, Manhunter and Plastic Man will sneak in through the ducts while I hack the cameras and make them still frames. Manhunter will find the Warden and replace him while monitoring the cameras, along with letting Itachi in through the airlock. Then Plastic Man will break his son out along with distributing the rings to the Lanterns, and they'll be extracted. Then Itachi will find Killer Croc, Bane, The Rogues, Livewire, Killer Frost, Mr Freeze, Deadshot, Kite Man, and Two Face and will knock them out and extract them. Then..... he will do what he has to. And Manhunter and Itachi will be extracted."
Aquaman walked forward, "My wife will be joining us to deal with the oxygen problem between the whales and you all."
"Good, we're leaving now."
Itachi swapped from his Akatsuki cloak to body armor styled after his old Anbu outfit. He has a Kevlar laced sweatshirt and sweatpants on, along with a steel chest plate under the shirt. His two arm guards were also steel. He had a sword, kunai, shuriken, metal thread, and modified paper bombs. And lastly he had scrolls inside of a pouch on his leg for extra Chakra in case it was needed. Along with a green pill if anyone he fought ended up being too strong.
They walked inside of the mouth of a Whale, and two other whales followed behind them. Itachi took deep breaths and meditated on the way there. 'I was hoping more of the villains there would be changeable..... although I'm not a fool. Most of them are clinically insane or are psychopaths with no interest in anything remotely good, some of them are even aliens that survive off of killing. In the case of Two Face we'll have to fix his face. For Killer Croc we'll cure his condition. When it comes to Bane he'll have to be separated from Venom completely with no opportunity to relapse. The motivation of Mr Freeze has always been to try and save his wife's life. I'm sure that Lex will come up with something. Then for Deadshot, well he's a contract killer with a daughter he wants to protect more than anything, so that shouldn't be hard. Both Killer Frost and Livewire have actually helped heroes before briefly, they'll just need more of a push to the right side. And for the Rouges? None of them have killed, they have standards. Stopping them should be the easiest.'
The whale stopped moving and everyone sensed the lack of motion. Aquaman walked to the entrance of the mouth and Mera stood up ready to hold off the water. Aquaman held his hand to the side of the whale and closed his eyes. A moment later the mouth opened and they all marveled at the prison. A huge gray building with a glass dome on top. And long corridors that worked as bridges to four other buildings. Both Plastic Man and Manhunter went in through a duct.
Once they were in Manhunter found the camera room quickly and saw that the Warden was Metamorpho. Manhunter snuck behind him and held a hand up to his head. His index finger turned into a tiny tentacles that was as thin as a thread and put it in Metamorpho's ear. Once he found his brain he expanded the finger a little which made his brain bounce around in his own skull. The shock from it made him pass out.
He then morphed into Metamorpho and heard a buzzing sound coming from his right. He saw a button on the wall with no description. He pressed it and it stopped buzzing. "This must be the tool to check in. Tim, I'm in control now, you can give me back access to the cameras."
"Returning it back to you now."
When the cameras turned back on Manhunter saw that Plastic Man had already freed his son. Along with all of the Lanterns. He unlocked the airlock, "Itachi, it's your turn now."
Itachi went into the Airlock. And as the water was drained the door opened and he saw the remaining Lanterns on the other side along with Plastic Man and his son.
The Lanterns noticed him and got ready for battle. Itachi put up his hands in defense, "I'm not with the Regime. I was a spy. Don't worry, I mean you no harm."
Kilowog stated, "You sure? You really like like you're ready to kill someone."
Itachi put on a fake smile, "I came up with the plan to break you all out. Trust me, Aquaman is out there ready to extract you all."
They all cautiously lowered their rings and Itachi made his way past them, dropping the smile. Manhunter talked over the comms, "I've ordered for all of the Villains to be sent to the Cafeteria."
Itachi stood outside of the Cafeteria, "Thank you," placed a hand on the door. He took one more deep breath. 'First, take out the Supersoldiers, then everyone else.... I'm not very good at fighting groups of enemies, but I should be able to complete this mission anyways.'
He used a jutsu to disguise himself and entered the room. 'This room is one big open area with a couple beam supports above it with guards on it. In total, 6 guards, more two dozen sacrifices, and 13 good villains. So out of the hundreds in the room there are I need to not kill thirty-nine. Easy enough.'
He blitzed each of the guards in an instant and gained the attention of everyone in the room. Everyone looked up at him and some started cheering, "Are you gonna break us out?" He undid his disguise and activated his Mangekyo. 'Tsukiyomi.' About a fourth of the people in the room dropped dead foaming at the mouths with blood shot eyes. One of them screamed and another blurted out, "W-what the hell?! Is Superman having us executed?!"
Itachi remained silent and dropped down. He pulled out two shuriken and undid their transformation which made them increase in size to massive shuriken. He threw them through the crowd which cut down multiple people, but then he pulled on the metal thread and pulled them back, hitting more people. Although before they could take out more people Killer Frost froze them. Her ice traveled up the thread and Itachi dropped them and drew his Blade. Bane dashed at him and threw some punches that Itachi easily weaved past every blow and pulled out a kunai. He cut each of the tendons in Banes arms and legs causing him to fall into Itachi's Chakra fueled uppercut which knocked him out.
Next Zsasz, Two Face, and Cheetah rushed at him, but Itachi just dodged everything they tried and he caught Zsasz's arm as he tried to slice at him and he sliced his throat open. Then the roundhouse kicked Two Face across the room. After that he broke Cheetah's left arm. Killer Frost tried to blast him again, but he guarded using Cheetah's body. While hidden by the ice he planted a paper bomb on her back, "Wait!--" He chucked her at Killer Frost which killed Cheetah, but only knocked out Killer Frost.
With no time to breathe at all Killer Croc tried to chomp down on his head, but Itachi substituted with a paper bomb which went off in Crocs mouth, taking him out instantly. After that a weird purple alien monster tried to pounce on him, but he hopped away. Although he quickly realized he was about to hop into the hands of Grundy. 'Wind Style: Wind Gust.' He used wind to propel himself further into the air, narrowly avoiding Grundy's grasp. Although once he was in the air he noticed Gorilla Grodd getting ready to swing at him. Although once he hit him it turned out it was a clone that exploded in his face sending him flying. Itachi broke the handle off of his blade and threw it into the ground where Grodd would land. It stuck into the ground, and when Grodd landed on it it went straight through the back of his head.
Itachi sensed a lightning bolt that was about to strike him and it hit, causing him to grit his teeth. Livewire dropped down in front of him and put her hands on both sides of his head. "Time to fry your ass!"
"That level of lightning is too weak," Itachi dissolved into water and covered Livewire which immobilized her. The real Itachi jumped down in front of her and put a hand on her forehead. 'Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu.'
He turned back towards Grundy and the Parasite. 'These two are much stronger than anyone else here. One eats just about anything including lasers, and the other is immortal and regenerates from everything.... although does regeneration matter when I take the soul from the body?'
Itachi manifested the right arm of his Susanoo and stabbed the blade through Grundy. Grundy's already dead body slowly softened and the blade absorbed him. He tried to hit the purple monster with it, but it dodged.
Just to test a few things he threw kunai at it, but his body just sucked it up. It rushed at him, "I'M HUNGRY!"
Itachi started to rely on dodging. 'The way that Superman used to beat this was exposure to Kryptonite after he absorbs his power and gains his weakness, I could do the same tactic. Sorry that it had to be this way, Parasite. But there isn't any cure for what you suffer from.' He pretended to slip up and let himself be caught. As soon as he was he felt the energy leave his body, and when he felt like he lost enough he broke free using the Susanoo rib cage. He then thrust a vial into Parasite's body. 'An accelerated version of the weakness Batman came up with for me. Amaterasu.'
Parasite was set aflame and parts of his body started dissolving due to the sheer heat of the jutsu. He was being burned alive faster than he could absorb the jutsu because of his rapid energy loss. Eventually he dissolved into nothing and Itachi deactivated his Mangekyo, switching to the normal Sharingan. He turned and looked at what remained alive in the room since it seemed like all the biggest threats were down. Killer Frost had woken back up, but was backed up against a wall with a desperate expression on her face instead of fighting. The rest of the people in the room also slowly backed away when he looked at them.
He walked over to Livewire and undid the Water Prison Jutsu. She passed out. But was alive. Itachi did one hand sign and pulled the water out of her body that was preventing her from breathing. After confirming her safety he turned to the rest of the people in the room and slowly started walking towards them. No one moved, they just backed up further until they were against a wall and couldn't escape. Many of them were sweating with very tense faces. Some were breathing heavy, others fell to the ground, some begged, etc. Itachi raised one hand sign, 'Wind cutting Water Dragon Jutsu,' what followed for the next couple of minutes were nothing but screams of pain as Itachi finished off the rest of the villains. At the end of it, his previously black outfit was completely red from blood. Including his face. He killed most of them, but he made sure to spare some to be used as sacrifices later. He then looked at Killer Frost. As soon as they made eye contact she started looking back and forth for a way out, but saw nothing but bodies everywhere. 'Fear. That's good. That can be their motivation.'
He got within two meters of her and she put her hands up in front of herself. "H-hey you don't have to kill me! I'll do whatever you want!"
He knelt down in front of her, not bothering to undo his Sharingan or wipe away any blood, "You want to live, right?" She didn't say anything at first so Itachi raised his voice just a bit to get the message across, "Right?"
She meakly nodded, "Of course...."
Itachi stood up and pulled her up off of the ground. Bring them at level height. "Do you know why you're still alive?"
She stopped shaking as much but was still very tense, "... No."
"Well unlike the rest of the guys laying around here, I believe that you can do better. You don't need to become a Saint like the old Superman, but you can be better. Fight for something better. Like you've done on past occasions where you've helped heroes. Although it'll have to be permanent this time, or else I will kill you without hesitation. Alright?"
Her eyes blinked rapidly, "Uh, Y-YES!" She stuttered a little, since Itachi's words caught her off guard. Although she wasn't gonna let an opportunity like this go.
"Good. Well then let's go."
"Go w"-- she passed out and Itachi caught her and picked her up bridal style. Manhunter entered the room and gave brief glaces at the bloodbath. "We need to get out here soon. It checks in at intervals of 5 minutes."
Itachi nodded and quickly got all the DNA samples he needed, then he and they both started carrying bodies. Manhunter carried Bane, Two Face, and Livewire, while Itachi carried Killer Frost and everyone else in Reverse Water Prison Jutsus. Itachi took one last glance at the bloody room and shut his eyes forcefully and looked away instantly.
They made it to the airlock and Mera was on the other side ready to protect them from the threat of drowning. When the airlock opened they were taken out of the prison. Mera stated, "Put the supersoldiers in the whale on the left with the Lanterns. They'll be sent back to the surface..... also the Titans are somewhat uncomfortable with seeing you right now. So it's best if you go in the whale with those villains. You should probably wash up before you see them again."
Itachi nodded, "Thank you, Mera. For everything."
Manhunter stuck close to Itachi, "I'll go in the whale with you."
"You don't need to, Manhunter."
"It's alright. I insist. I was ready to kill Wonder Woman almost four years ago now, I have no problem with what you've done today."
Itachi smiled, "Thank you."
They put the Super soldiers in one whale, and got into the whale with the sacrifices and ten of the villains. Manhunter looked at Itachi, "I noticed the look of shame on your face when we were leaving."
He briefly looked up at Manhunter, "This may come as a surprise to you..... but despite how talented I seem to be at it, I hate killing."
Manhunter raised a brow, "Why do you do it then?"
Itachi looked up, "I don't want to see people die, but objectively killing is what saves the most lives in cases like these ironically enough."
Manhunter looked down and had a hand on his chin, after a few seconds he nodded and asked, "What now?"
"The only other person who could break everyone out is Plastic Man, although he'd put on a big show and let everyone know he did it. He also wouldn't leave hundreds of dead bodies behind. He'll find out it was us eventually if not right away, but either way we have time to set up the next part of my plan. We're going to reanimate the villains which will become his main focus, and as a result his forces will be spread out even more. Then it'll be easier to pick them all off, one by one. Leaving Superman himself for last."
Manhunter nodded, "It's a good plan. What about our allies though? They don't even want to see you right now."
"Let's compare this to one of Batman's plans. Batman has tried to infiltrate the Fortress Of Solitude before. Much less secure. Two heroes died and his back was broken, it was almost a complete failure. And the rest of his plans from then on followed a similar pattern. I've acted on only one plan so far and it went perfectly without there being any surprises. I've proven my reliability, and after today there's no going back. For any of us. I used to just have their word, but now I truly have their loyalty. They'll come around on their own very soon, and when they do the Regime will be as good as done."
End: Year Four