Chapter XXXI: Our Last Stand

The next chapter will more than likely be the last one

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There were ten minutes left until Tim's execution and the sun started to rise over the Hall Of Justice. He stood alongside Zatanna, Starfire, Superboy, Wondergirl, Manhunter, Batgirl, Catwoman, Batman, and Aquaman and Mera who were both disguised as Billy and Hal with Itachi's jutsu. There was also a clone of Itachi disguised as Damian. The three of them that were in disguises had fake cuffs on to act like they were restrained. The Atlantean army was on standby ready to be reversed summoned.

On the other side of what would soon be a desolate battlefield, there stood Superman with his yellow lantern ring, Wonder Woman, Raven, Cyborg, Ares, a brainwashed Doomsday and Bizarro, and Black Adam who was ready to switch sides at any moment. And at the center was Tim who was kneeled on the ground unconscious with Raven next to him ready to kill him. 'Superman. I should thank you for making Tim such an easy target. I thought that this might have been harder.' There was also an army of Super Soldiers behind them.

They all looked up at the helicopters above that pointed cameras down at them, and there were crowds gathering from a close enough distance to see them all, but for enough to not get blown away from stray blasts.

Up in the helicopters every single news channel active in America was getting in on the potential action. "It seems like the terrorist Itachi has decided to respond to Superman's ultimatum and is now standing in front of him at the Hall Of Justice. Everyone is holding their breath in anticipation of what he'll do next. In the past week he has taken down multiple members of Superman's Regime. Will it all end here, or will he let his teammate die as an opportunity to fight Superman? We'll find out soon."

Manhunter connected them all mentally and Wondergirl asked, "Does anyone know why there are thousands of people gathered around this place?"

"It sounds like they're all making bets on the outcome of this."

"What do they think the outcome is gonna be?"

"Whether or not Itachi will really surrender himself or not. And if he doesn't, then who will win the fight."

"Are you able to keep track of who's getting the most bets?"

"Yeah.... right now it sounds like Superman has eighty percent of the bets."

"Oh... those aren't good odds."

Itachi cut in, "I'd say that our odds are almost perfect."

Batgirl said, "Let's not get overly optimistic. We're fighting against some heavy hitters here. I never even knew they had Doomsday on their side."

Zatanna looked back at her and smiled, "It's not something he's saying just to be positive. He doesn't make claims like that unless he's absolutely certain."

Batgirl looked at the Titans and Manhunter and noticed that they all had the same look in their eyes. She smirked and raised a brow, "Alright then. Well if you've all put so much faith into him then I'll believe it."

Wondergirl started looking at everyone on her team, "So who calls dibs on who?"

Itachi went first, "I'm going after Superman."

"Going straight for the most dangerous guy? Are you sure you can take him on your own?"

"Well I didn't go straight to a red sun just to fight Cyborg."

Wondergirl put a hand on her chin, "Fair... Hey, Zatanna. You should take on Raven."

Zatanna looked back at her with an unamused look, "Is it just because we both use magic?"

She smiled and rubbed the back of her head, "You read my mind."

"We're all reading each other's minds."

"Would you all stop squabbling about such silly things and start the fight already? Why am I even connected to your minds?"

Everyone glanced at Black Adam across the battlefield who had his arms crossed and he kept finger tapping. Starfire stated, "Because you're on our team."

Catwoman asked, "Well who are you taking on?"

"I'll take on whoever I get my hands on first."

She tilted her head, "But there's gotta be someone specific, right? Someone you really wanna get revenge on?" Black Adam briefly glanced at Wonder Woman. "It's Wonder Woman?"

His forehead tensed, "She humiliated me with her Lasso, she'll pay dearly for that."

"Alright big guy, as long as you don't kill her then go right ahead."

"Hmph, well we don't have much time left. Let's get started already."

Batman said, "I agree with Black Adam. We only have two minutes left."

"Alright, everyone. Brace yourselves. This is our final stand. Zatanna, ready?"

She nodded and they both stepped forward, she put a hand on his shoulder and in an instant before a synapse could fire in the brains of any of the thousands of people watching, Itachi's Totsuka blade stabbed straight through Tim Drake. Ignoring the obvious shock the Regime and audience was at his action, Raven couldn't have done anything. Because killing Tim would have put her in the way of the attack. "Zatanna, now!"

"Got it! Ekard mit fo ydob ehe evreserp!" As Tim Drake's body was being pulled into Itachi's gourd, Zatanna placed a spell on Tim's body that preserved his brain activity for much longer than normal, guaranteeing a safe resurrection later on.

Right after that was done, the non powered members of Itachi's team took their green pills, and Itachi undid all of his seals and started to overflow with the chakra he's built up over the past week. He lifted one hand sign and reverse summoned the Atlantean army which was relative to the Regime one in numbers. The disguises of Mera and Aquaman also dropped and he yelled, "Charge, Atlantians!" And for the first time since fighting against Parademons in Tokyo. His red Susanoo rose to its full height of one hundred and thirty-five meters. Causing Helicopters to fly away or higher into the sky to avoid getting destroyed.

He manifested a blade in his left arm and swept it across the battlefield, taking out some of the Super Soldiers before Superman stopped the blade and destroyed it. "When I finish dealing with all of you, I'll make sure I destroy your pathetic nation first, Aquaman. Attack!"

The full on war broke out and everyone started taking on their own opponents. Black Adam started to fight Wonder Woman, Manhunter attacked Doomsday, Zatanna fought Raven, The three Titans took on Cyborg and Ares who was getting powered by the battlefield, and Aquaman and Batman took on Bizarro while Catwoman, Batgirl, and Mera fought against the Super Soldiers with the Atlantians. Then last but definitely not least, Itachi started to take on Superman.

Starfire and Cyborg started shooting multiple blasts at each other. Wondergirl dashed at Ares with a straight right, although Ares diverted it to the side. So she used the momentum to spin into a roundhouse kick to his head which sent him into the ground. Although he got up moments later and was glowing. He grabbed her by the neck and lifted her off the ground. "This war fuels me, half sister. Not even Diana couldn't beat me in this state, so there's no way that you could beat me."

Superboy hit him with an overhead left which made him lose his grip on Wondergirls neck. She took advantage of the loose grip and wrapped her arm around his and started punching him with the other one. The last punch sent him skidding across the ground and she rubbed her neck, "Good thing I'm not alone then."

Starfire was weaving through Cyborg's shots and moved the fight into a closer battle. She tried to hit him with a left hook, but he ducked under it and landed a body shot on her. She got dazed, but was fine. She destroyed the ground under them with a powerful blast, and while he was off balance she was going to try and attack again, but stopped when she noticed that Cyborg's chest was glowing. She leaned back far enough to almost fall on her back, and Cyborg tried capitalizing on that by shooting her with multiple cannons at the same time. But she started to levitate and spun in mid air kicking his arm cannon to the side before haymakering him into the ground. "How could you team up with Superman?! He nearly killed Superboy and then trapped the rest of us inside the Phantom Zone. If it weren't for Itachi we'd all be dead right now!"

Cyborg got back up and his expression didn't change. Starfire's eyes went wide and her eyes tensed, "You.... knew," but then that was replaced with a snarl and clenched fist. "You knew!"

On the other side of the battle field Zatanna and Raven were currently at a stalemate, Manhunter was starting to have trouble with a seemingly stronger Doomsday, and Aquaman and Batman were holding their own, but everytime it seemed like they were coming close to beating Bizarro, he blew them away or shot beams that made them have to back off.

Aquaman gripped his Trident tightly, "Batman. How do you suppose that we defeat this Superman clone? Everytime we get close it just blows us away."

Batman flipped over another heat blast, "While I distract it with smoke, try to restrain him."

Aquaman started dashing towards Bizarro, "I doubt that I could restrain that monster, but it's as good of a plan as any," Batman threw lead based smoke pellets at the clone which confused it. And in the confusion Aquaman grabbed it from behind and started holding it in place. Batman revealed red sun knuckle dusters from his belt and was about to get within punching distance of Bizarro, but then Bizarro flew up into the air with Aquaman still grabbing him, "Let go of him, Aquaman!" But it was too late and Bizarro broke his trident.

While Aquaman was falling helplessly a hundred meters away from the ground, it seemed like Bizarro was going to finish him off. But then suddenly Bizarro was in cased in ice and a gust of wind made sure Aquaman safely landed.

Aquaman and Batman looked at where the attacks seemed to have come from and saw Killer Frost and the Rogues coming into the battlefield from seemingly nowhere. Batman raised a brow, "Villians? What are you doing here?"

Mirror Master said, "We used to be in Superman's prison, if he wins then we're probably all going to be killed."

Killer Frost continued, "And technically Itachi set us free. So we're just returning the favor."

Batman was satisfied with the answer and showed that to them in his own Batman kind of way. "Alright then. Well you should start returning that favor by helping us take these guys down."

At the center of the battlefield Itachi condensed his Susanoo into something resembling body armor and both him and Superman dashed at each other. Itachi easily weaved through Superman's punches and tried to uppercut him. But Superman blew him away and Itachi flipped to catch himself. Superman started shooting multiple heat blasts at him and Itachi evaded them all and countered by throwing shrunken at him. Superman just lifted a hand to block them, but groaned in pain when they Pentwater his arm. He took a closer look at the Shuriken, "Red Sun Radiation. Petty tricks aren't going to help you win anymore, Itachi."

Itachi raised a hand sign and made two clones. All three of them used Water Dragon jutsu which Superman countered with a shield bubble. While inside the bubble the two clones started shooting multiple Yasaka beads at him which broke through the shield and hit him. Superman fell to the ground, and when he landed he landed on a bed of Kunai that Itachi set up earlier while he was dodging him.

Superman just ignored the pain and his eyes started glowing more red than ever before. Itachi tensed up and looked behind him, 'This next blast is going to take out hundreds of people behind me if I dodge it.'

Superman shot a huge blast at Itachi that Itachi had to block with the Yata Mirror. 'I might have to seal him with the Totsuka blade,' he glanced over at Zatanna, Manhunter, and everyone else fighting, 'Nevermind. I'll only have three minutes from there to bring him back, and the fighting won't be over by then.'

The two clones started raining Yasaka beads at Superman which seemed like they were hurting him a lot. Although when the assault there was a huge cloud of dust that was hard to see through. A beam shot through the smoke taking out one clone, and when the dust settled, Superman got up to his feet wobbling, breathing heavily. But he quickly recovered and rushed at the other clone. The clone was going to jump out of the way, but it's feet were frozen in place.

'He must have frozen the ground under him while he was getting assaulted. The clone put up its shield, but Superman used the ring to hit it with a hooked blade from behind that went through its back. Making it disappear. Itachi narrowed his eyes, 'He seems exhausted. But that ring has made him considerably stronger, it's going to take more than that to take him down.'

Superman shook his head, "I still don't get it, Itachi. For someone that hates war so much it sure seems like you want nothing more than to keep fighting."

"I know that you won't see it this way, but I'm doing this for your sake, Clark."

Clark scoffed and chuckled, "You know what? It doesn't matter. It's clear to me now that none of you will ever be loyal to me, so I'll just have to kill you all."

Superman started shooting another huge beam that Itachi blocked. After a few seconds Superman took advantage of Itachi's line of sight being blocked and grabbed him and started flying up into the sky. 'Where is he taking me?'

Itachi used Amaterasu and Superman grunted in pain, but he powered through it and they started flying into space further away from Earth.

'Wait..... he's going to throw me into the sun! Ill be dead in just a matter of seconds!' Itachi started to feel the extreme heat of the sun as it got bigger and bigger as he got closer to it. Zatanna talked to him trhougg their minds with clear concern in her voice, "Did you say that you're near the sun?? Do you need assistance up there?"

".... No, I have it covered. Thank you."

Itachi's eyes became cold, 'Well if you're this close to the sun, you'll heal from anything I do. So I'm not going to hold back on you anymore.'