Chapter XXX: Six Hours

I realized that last chapter I accidently called him Hades instead of Ares. Just ignore that, that was an accidental mix up since the names sounded similar to me.

--------------------------------------------------------------

After playing around with Bizarro for a little while, he received a call from Cyborg that Hawkgirl had been captured and he got serious. After a bit of effort he knocked him out. The combined power of the ring on top of Superman's already vast strength put him in another time of power. He picked Bizarro up by his cape and flew straight to Lex Luthor's Tower, "Time to get some answers."

He got there in just a few seconds and Lex's eyes went wide as he saw what Superman was carrying. Superman slapped Bizarro to wake him up and he started looking around. Eventually his eyes locked on Lex and he raised a brow, "Uh, you science man. Why father here?"

Superman had a glare on his face and he threw Bizarro aside and started approaching Lex, "You... lied to me. You betrayed me!"

Lex put his hands in front of him and started backing up, "Clark, listen to me"-Superman back handed him into a wall, "I'm done listening to ANYONE else! You made this clone to try and defeat me!"

Bizarro flew back in and tried to start fighting Superman again, but Superman put him in a Yellow bubble, "I'm getting real tired of you. I'm going to have to put you away until I can brainwash you too," he called Raven who was close by, "Raven. There's a clone of me here, somewhere where it can't interfere with my plans."

Raven arrived a couple minutes later and did as she was told. Superman then noticed that Lex hadn't moved the whole time after he slapped him into a wall. He walked up to him and noticed his head was bleeding, "Lex?"

He picked him up and looked into his eyes. They still responded to light so he was alive at least, but he was in a bad condition. Superman walked out of the room into the next where there was a secretary, "Lex has suffered an Injury at the hands of a Superman clone. Take him to the medical bay."

"R-right away Sir!" The secretary pressed a button and called up a medical unit and Superman left him on the desk. He started to leave and looked back one more time, "Next time you lie to me, you won't get another chance." He started going through Lex's desk, "Where is it? Ah, here it is." He pulled out a tablet for the controls of Doomsday on it. "I want everyone to come to the Hall Of Justice now. Drop anything else you might be doing."

After a while when everyone was at the Hall Of Justice, Superman sat on his throne and put his hands together and took a deep breath. "How did we manage to lose another Regime member?"

Cyborg stepped forward and he looked at the ground, "We got a fake transmission of someone Imitating Damian's voice asking for our assistance. I sent three of our team over there to deal with the threat, but when they got there they were already gone and just left Damian's comms piece. While there was no one else around they must have got Hawkgirl."

Superman crushed a piece of his throne and gritted his teeth. But before he could have an outburst, Raven stepped in, "The comms piece they left behind is all that we need though. It was recently touched by Tim, and that's all I need to track him down."

Superman calmed down, "Well at least someone here is competent. Good job, as soon as you find him, tell me. And from now on, all of you need to be teamed up with someone else so you can't be picked off one by one."

She nodded and Superman dismissed them.

The next day, the Akatsuki were all in a good mood after having another victory. The Titans were still training, Hawkman took Hawkgirl back with him to Thanagar, Tim was in the real world on his way to meet Batman, and Zatanna, Manhunter, and Itachi were already thinking of their next plan. Itachi said, "We've been perfect so far. Not a single loss and we're more than halfway there. Although now we need a plan on how to take out Raven, Superman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and Ares."

Manhunter replied, "I believe that with our current members we could take them out in a head on fight."

"Maybe, although I don't want to risk that. We've been taking them out secretly so far, I want to keep it that way."

Zatanna raised a hand, "I don't think we can do that anymore though. We should have taken out members like Cyborg and Wonder Woman first. Because they don't need to eat, sleep, or drink."

Itachi put a hand under his chin, "You're right. That would have given us more options since now we can't poison anyone or take them out in their sleep now..... although, Wonder Woman still needs to breathe."

"That's true. If Superman wasn't there, I could have taken her out easily."

"I see what you're both getting at, but after how many of them we've taken out I doubt that we can separate them from each other again. They'll probably always be teamed up and have linked communication now."

While they discussed their plans, Raven found out where Tim was and the whole Regime started descending on his location.

"Thanks, Alfred. I'll be fine. I'm going to go see Bruce now." Tim shut the door to the Manor and started to venture out into the night. Before seeing Batman he decided to visit Alfred first because he hadn't talked to him in years. Although he didn't take many steps before he was surrounded by Superman, Raven, Wonder Woman, and Ares. Tim reflexively reached for the Green pill in his pocket, but before he could swallow it he was blitzed by Superman who grabbed his arm and almost crushed it.

Tim groaned in pain, and Superman looked down at him and his eyes started glowing red. But before he could lebotomize him Wonder Woman put a hand on Superman's shoulder. He glared at her, but she remained firm, "There's no reason to kill him! Maybe you could use him as bait to draw out the rest of his team."

His eyes stopped glowing red, "Alright, that's not a bad idea," he put a hand on his shoulder, "Well, Tim. It's your lucky day. Think that you can help me with something?"

Tim glared at him, "I'll never help you!"

"It's not up to you Tim. Come on now." They flew away and Alred opened the door, "What was that sound just now?" He looked around but he saw nothing and closed the door again.

"I could pretend to be one of them and capture a few of them using Genjutsu. That's one of the only ways left we have to capture them sneakily."

Before they could plan for anything else the door swung open and Wondergirl stood there with a dreadful look on her face, "You all have to come see this, now!"

They didn't question her and followed her to the only room in the Tower with a TV connected to Earth. The news channel was on and the content on the screen quickly put surprise on all of their faces. "Tim has been...."

Superman held Tim Drake who was currently tied up and gagged, "Itachi Uchiha! For the past week you and your team have been doing nothing but interfering with the path towards peace this world is on. Well your terrorism ends now. If you and your team don't come here ready to surrender with my captured subordinates in six hours, then Tim Drake will be executed, if you try anything then Tim will be killed right away. This goes for Batman too, I expect you to come and surrender at the same time. If any of you are even a second late then he will die."

The News broadcast cut off and went to the normal reporters who started expressing their own concern and anticipation for what Itachi might do.

Everyone's eyes in the room looked towards Itachi, waiting for what he might say. He hid his clenched fist in his cloak, 'How did they capture him so soon? He's only been out there for less than an hour. It must have been either Raven or Ares that used some kind of magic.... but that doesn't matter now. This isn't something I can ignore,' he looked back at the Titans who looked at him with the most desperation in their eyes out of his whole team, 'They've known him the longest. After losing so many of their friends at once, they'd do anything to save Tim. There's really only one way I can respond to this.'

Itachi stepped forward, "I won't let Tim be killed, so we're going," a sense of relief washed over the Titans and they let out the air in their lungs not even realizing they were holding it. "Although, this is obviously a trap. I wouldn't be surprised if he had an army of Super Soldiers there with him. And I also have no doubt that he'll have us all killed if we surrendered."

Starfire asked, "So what do you think we should do then?"

"We're going to have to call in some allies. And once we get there, to save Tim's life, I'm going to have to kill him myself." Everyone's eyes went wide.

While they discussed their plan, Raven stood guard over Tim who was strapped to a metal chair. "Raven, you were one our team.... Why are you helping Superman of all people?!" She didn't respond and Tim gritted his teeth, "What would Nightwing, or Beastboy, and or anyone else who was on our team think of you now?" Still no response. "TALK TO ME, RAVEN!"

She finally looked at him, and when she did it she suddenly tensed up. Tim's eyes turned from their normal blue into a red and black pinwheel pattern. Tim smirked. Although his smirk turned into a frown when Raven's eyes went from two eyes into four and glowed red briefly before turning back to normal. His eyes went wide, "Trigon... he...."

Before he could say anything else Superman walked into the room and leaned down, "Tim, tell me. Does Itachi have any secret powers I should know of?"

Tim shook his head, "You can forget about it. I was trained by Batman, remember? You're not getting anything out of me."

Superman glanced at Raven and they both nodded at each other. Raven stepped close to him and hovered two hands over his head. She'll just have to extract your memories directly then."

She started going through all of his memories. She eventually found one of Tim in the Phantom Zone. "I'll reveal that plan in the future. But just in case that doesn't work, I have this," Itachi closed his eyes, but before he could open them the memory suddenly became distorted and Raven flew back into a wall with a throbbing headache.

Tim passed out. Superman walked to Raven, "What happened?"

Raven rubbed her head and slowly stood back up, "Itachi must have put something in his head that somehow blocks anyone from learning about his power. Tim probably can't even recall it from memory himself."

Superman sighed, "Well no matter. He only has less than six hours to come here anyways."

Itachi teleported to Atlantis first and appeared straight into the Throne room. "I was wondering just how soon you would come."

"Then you must know why I'm here."

Aquaman nodded and stood from his throne, "Yes, I do," he smiled, "And yes, I will help you. You are a friend, and Superman is a threat to everyone on this planet. I'll gather our forces, we'll come when you're ready."

Itachi smiled and they shook hands, "Thank you, Arthur."

"And thank you, Itachi."

Itachi walked back to Zatanna, "Next is Black Adam. Tropelet ot qadnahK."

They appeared in the Throne room of Black Adam and saw construction workers on top currently repairing a recent hole in the ceiling. "I'm guessing that Superman came to see you recently."

Black Adam's brow scrunched at the memory, "Yes. After so many years, what brings you here before me?"

Itachi got on one knee and bowed his head, "I'd like to ask for your assistance in the fight against Superman."

Black Adam put his hands together, "Interesting. Superman asked to do the same thing," Itachi stayed still for a minute and kept his head bowed, "Although unlike you, I despise Superman. So yes, I will help you. You may go now," he waved a hand.

Itachi smiled and did one more bow before leaving, "And now, Batman. Tropelet."

They appeared in the bunker that was in the Salt Mines and found Batgirl, Catwoman, and Batman getting their equipment ready. Without looking back at them Batman said, "Yes, we plan on going too, I don't like to team up with killers. But if it's for Tim then I'll compromise just this once."

Itachi smirked and sighed, 'Straight to the point as always. That's a good thing though. I know that we don't agree on a lot, but I'm glad that you could set aside our differences for Tim's sake.'

Both Zatanna and Itachi left. "We have three hours left. Anywhere else we need to go?"

"Just one more place. Take me to a red sun."

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow and he continued, "Don't worry. My body can handle it. I just have to hold my breath. Adding red sun radiation to my weapons will be a huge help against Superman. Probably the only way I can beat him.

She complied and soon they were floating in space next to a red sun. Zatanna covered herself in a magical air bubble and Itachi floated next to her in the vacuum of Space. Itachi marveled at the countless white dots everywhere around in the black void. 'Seems like my assumption was right. Although Naruto's ability to breathe in space seems to be connected to his six paths powers..... but since the Sage restored my vision, then maybe....' He released the air out of his lungs. And then he breathed in again. And then out, and then in, and out again.