The 1920s; the early days of Metropolis... The city was home to bootlegging, weapons smuggling and other manners of organised crime... All under the direction of Cyrus Gold a mountain of a man who acted as his organisation's main enforcer along with acting as the city's biggest merchant. Everyone who knew of his crime lord status was terrified of him and he was legally untouchable with the police in his back pocket. It was said that he had a favourite swamp where he liked to hide the body parts of people he had murdered; his own little 'slaughter swamp'.
One night that he had gone to the Slaughter Swamp to kill his latest victim when he walked into an ambush by rivals; an army of killers unleashed their bullets on him and he stubbornly tried to keep himself standing and alive despite being mortally injured. However it was said that he got his leg tangled in a vine and dragged kicking and screaming into his own Slaughter Swamp. It was said that Mother Nature herself finally had enough of him.
After he was declared dead; people noticed that the birth date on his certificate was a Monday, his wedding was on a Wednesday and it was a Friday night where he met his fate. Children would go around the area of the Swamp and chant the Solomon Grundy nursery rhyme and thus post humously Cyrus Gold was nicknamed Solomon Grundy...
"Wow Lucy... What a story..." drawled Haiku being as impressed as she could while keeping her stoic nature upon the Metropolis urban legend being relayed to her by Lucy; the two best friends who had been keeping in touch with video calls and messages were reunited in the flesh as Lucy's family had come to the city for a cousin's wedding. Lucy had taken Haiku to see the fabled lake where Gold had met his fate; the rest of the area had long since been cleaned up from the swamp it had used to be and was used as a small park except for the lake which had guard railing around it and a plague telling the mythical story.
"Indeed; some like to say that Solomon Grundy never actually died... The forces of nature refused to let his suffering end and thus damned him to living under the swap..." Lucy stated as Haiku looked down. "Haiku; I just want to say how happy I am that we get to do stuff like this together. It had been too long since our Morticians Club had been together." Lucy then told her in her usual non-expressive tone.
"The same from me. I was concerned that Metropolis would be too lively for my tastes; especially with it being 'superhero central' in the country. To find such a story in this city is just remarkable." Haiku then told her and then she got an idea. "I just wish that there was a way to see if we can summon Grundy..." Haiku said as Lucy pondered about that.
"I just might have something to help... I got this from an occult book store right before they ended up recalling and banning this book. Most copies ended up burned; probably by those that calls the dark arts blasphemous." Lucy then said as she got out a dark tome like book with a picture of a skull on it and it was titled Book of Nekron and authored by William Hand.
Using stones they then made a special formation that looked almost like a weird pentagram around the guard railing. They then began chanting the incantation but after a minute nothing happened.
They both shared a sigh and left with Lucy saying "Life is full of disappointments"
However after they left the water in the lake began stirring and boiling...
"Oh my handsome young man..." Rita was crying as she was looking at Lincoln dressed in his dress shirt, vest and bowler hat as a magician's uniform for the act with Zee at the charity magic show. Lincoln was embarrassed which didn't help as Rita pulled her into a hug.
Then there was a knock and Lincoln answered it to see Zee and Zatara in their magician's uniforms. "Ready to blow the audience off their feets my handsome partner?" Zee asked with a smirk taking Lincoln by the hand and practically dragging him to the limo.
"Easy now Zee dear; no need to remove his arm for the act." Zatara laughed as Lincoln waved goodbye to his parents who were at the door. They got to the limo as Lucy and Haiku had gotten back.
"Lincoln; you remember Haiku? Haiku; this is Lincoln and his future girlfriend Zee." Lucy said simply as Lincoln jumped red in the face and Zee was the same in her face but Zatara looked more amused.
"I do and pleasure to meet your acquittance again Lincoln and Zee; I must say that Lincoln is a tremendous dance partner." Haiku told them as they then waved goodbye and got into a limo.
"So you have gone with her to a dance?" Zee asked amused trying to think away from Lucy's comment as Lincoln was still annoyed about that.
"Yeah... Lucy set us up and... That's a whole story in off itself..." Lincoln replied with a sigh and Zee raised an eyebrow guessing that it must be.
"Yeah go Zee! Lincoln! There you go!" Barbara shouted out excitedly on the couch as she was hosting a watch party of the event with Diana, Jessica, Kara and Karen. The event was being filmed live and they just saw the Zataras and Lincoln turn up at the red carpet after the limo door was opened for them. The Zataras waved to the audience as Lincoln looked a bit more out of practice of doing this.
"Lincoln getting a taste of the spotlight..." Jessica said with a smile happy for him and then afterwards another limo turned up and out came an elderly man in a suit to open up the door and soon Jessica, Karen and Barbara's eyes widened. "Isn't that Alfred from..." Jessica asked as the door opened and out came a smiling handsome man followed by a stoic preteen boy in a suit as well. The man posed for the cameras that there flashing with the crowd becoming more excited.
"I am here to tell you that I will be more than happy to donate 10 billion dollars to the cause of the show as well as say that the next season of Make It Wayne will be better than the others!" the man said as he struck a pose and went down the carpet with Lincoln noticing him.
"Oh my gosh! It's really them..." Karen muttered out excitedly and jealous of Lincoln and Zee.
"It's them... I wonder how tax deductible that donation will be..." Barbara said glaring at the screen hugging a pillow as Diana was confused.
"Who are these people to get these reactions?" Diana asked as Kara faced him.
"That's Bruce Wayne; basically Gotham City's Lex Luthor with how rich and powerful he is and how much influence his company has over that city. He has his own reality show and isknown as a spoiled playboy and I think that's his kid Damian... No one knows where he came from... Proabably a one night stand that he covered up..." Kara explained as Karen was excited.
"I love Make It Wayne and I just hope that he and Selina gets together..." Karen then said as Barbara shook her head.
"Well I HATE it and I HATE him! Just some idiot playboy who inherited his wealth and I feel so sorry for that poor sweet boy Damian!" Barbara then said and then had a puppy dog eye look on Damian.
"Karen is going to love this..." Lincoln said looking at an autograph that he managed to get Bruce Wayne sign to give to Karen and Lincoln didn't expect to find him attending the show. They were now backstage as Zatara pondered something.
"He reminds me of a young man that was my top student in teach escapology..." Zatara said but then shrugged it off. "Anyway; I am proud of you both and I know that you are ready to handle this... I just knew that you were destined for great things when I found out that you had developed your own magic powers Zee dear." Zatara then told his daughter putting his hand on her shoulder.
"Thanks Daddy... That means so much to me..." Zee then said with a bright smile that faltered. "I just wish that Mum was here to see me... If only she had stayed..." Zee said in a low voice as Zatara frowned and Lincoln looked concerned and was about to reach out to her when Zatara coughed.
"You are plenty worth staying for Zee dear and don't think otherwise..." Zatara said as they heard the announcement about the opening act. Lincoln and Zee then got into position on the stage as the spotlight was on them as the curtains opened up.
Smoke bombs filled the stage as they then made their pose; "Open your hearts and surrender to the believe in magic and feel like a kid again!" Zee shouted out as she got her hat and with atap of her wand out came flowers, a snake and then folded up a piece of paper which turned into a dove in her hands with the audience astonished. Zee then gave Lincoln an encouraging smile as he then got a deck of cards in both hands and threw them which made 2 house of cards which had the audience clapping.
Soon after some more spectacular tricks; they shared a bow but then out from the front door came in police officers; "Sorry folks but we have to evacuate the premises as there is a bulky zombie in the area! Another day ending in 'Y' for this city but some say that it came from the remainder of Slaughter Swamp so we are calling this monster Grundy." one said startling and panicking the audience with Zatara looking concerned as he ran out and told Lincoln and Zee to go to safety.
Lincoln looked freaked out and excited at the same time to hear there was a zombie but Zee was angry and said "that monster is so going to wish that it stayed in the grave..."
One audience member looked suddenly serious and Bruce Wayne gave a look towards Alfred who nodded.
Peacemaker climbed on top of the building with Zatanna floating besides him; they looked down and sure enough a muscular bulky grey skinned figure in torn old black coloured clothes was rampaging through the streets with police officers trying to fire up on him. Grundy however was not phased and was throwing and smashing whatever he could get his hands on.
They went in closer and saw a figure in a black cape swoop down and the back of the cowl had bat like ears; "Looks like Babs managed to get here quicker than us somehow... Wait; has she got a new suit as this is black and not purple..." Peacemaker pointed out to Zatanna who looked suspicious. They swooped down as the figure sent Batarangs to Grundy which stuck itself to his body.
They then noticed that the figure was much taller than Batgirl and then phased him and their eyes widened; Peacemaker muttered out "wait... You're..."
"BATMAN! BATMAN IS IN METROPOLIS! THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!" Batgirl squealed excited as the rest of the Super Friends saw what happened on the live feed and gotten changed into their suits and now Barbara was keeping up by viewing the live news feed on her phone as they were travelling to the area together. "We can impress Batman!" Batgirl squealed.
"Especially if we have to save his bat behind from being crushed by the zombie..." joked Supergirl in flight as Wonder Woman looked serious.
"Remain focus on the task; try and subdue the Grundy monster while keeping innocents away from the line of fire." Wonder Woman ordered ready to join their teammates in the area for the fight. Batgirl had her eyes widened as she noticed a new figure rush into the fight and angrily said "Uhh... Batman brought Robin with him..."
Yes instead of the twerp Robin in this verse being Dick Grayson like in the show; I have changed it so that it's not my favourite DC hero but instead Damian Wayne my least favourite member of the Batfamily.