"I care Joker... About Gotham... About Justice... And if it has to end; at least I go out like this... Being Batman!"
Thank you Kevin Conroy for everything.
"So that was one of your old friends and she now thinks that you in that mask is a loser..." Zatanna whispered to Peacemaker as she teleported them both and Firestorm to the back of Mr Grouse's house in Royal Woods. Peacemaker sighed as he shook his head.
"Well she kind of did of the other side of me at first..." Peacemaker whispered back and Zatanna looked at him at that as Peacemaker stopped and stared at the right side of him as he overlooked the back of the house on the right. "Wow this brings back memories..." Peacemaker muttered with a nostalgiac look on his face underneath his mask as Firestorm floated up to him and shared in it as they saw stuff that the house's new owners had put up as they sighed. Firestorm looked at Lisa's head to see that even she was looking sadly nostalgiac as well.
"Wow... That was your old house... Wasn't it... Where you grew up..." Zatanna asked and the super Louds nodded at once solemnly thinking that it felt like they would spend their lives in that old Loud House where their family used to live ever since their parents had gotten married.
"Well... We got a job to do... Can't be too caught up in the past..." Peacemaker muttered as they went to the back door as Firestorm then faced him.
"Look Lincoln... Sorry Peacemaker..." Firestorm asked and then sighed as Peacemaker stared at her. "Are we really going to be seriously doing this... I mean we spent most of our lives next to Mr Grouse... I was his sports watching buddy... Are we really supposed to believe that he was some sort of super powerful magical superhero... That cranky old man? If he had anything to do with magic; you think that Lisa would at least have suspected something..." Firestorm whispered seriously to Peacemaker who thought it over.
"I... Can see your point but secret identities... Would you ever have suspected that I was Peacemaker or Chris was the previous one?" Peacemaker asked as Firestorm grumbled as she had no comeback to that as Peacemaker opened the back door and they silently sneaked through the house and memories of being inside the house came back to the super Louds.
They got to the living room and stopped as there was none other than Albert Grouse sitting down at his chair putting something together. "If it isn't him... Man he hardly looks different..." Firestorm whispered as Peacemaker and Zatanna looked at her asking to be quiet but Mr Grouse heard them and jumped at a gasp as he dropped some sort of scrapbook.
"What? What are you doing here... Trick or treaters..." Mr Grouse shouted out as the superheroes looked defensive.
"No... We are superheroes... Just wanted to... Sorry; we will help you pick up..." Peacemaker replied picking it up but stopped as he saw that Mr grouse had glued in covers of some tabloid gossip magazines of him as Lincoln together with Perdita. Mr Grouse then glared at them as he snatched it away.
"Give that back... For your information; the boy there used to live right next door to me... This is me putting in things I see of him and his family... My way of trying to keep up the memories..." Mr Grouse then said as Peacemaker and Firestorm blinked and shared a look.
They didn't expect this...
"You must have been close to your old neighbours then." Zatanna said as Mr Grouse then took a deep breath and sighed.
"No... Not really... They greatly annoyed me... Getting into my yard and making all the noise... I was celebrating when they moved away but after a while... I missed the chaos that they brought and the good times we shared... The new owners are alright but just average... It sounds weird but I made soft toys of them to act out pretending that they are still there..." Mr Grouse then explained as Peacemaker and Firestorm frowned not knowing what to say.
"Well that's nice and know but... A historian guy who said he was an immortal caveman said that you have a spear and the blood of Christ..." Firestorm then said and at that Mr Grouse looked extremely alarmed and jumped.
"Vandal Savage sent you after me... I mean... Who is Doctor Fate?" Mr Grouse then shouted out but caught himself and the three superheroes just stared at him.
"No one said anything about Doctor Fate..." Peacemaker told him and Mr Grouse looked panicked and sighed. They motioned to follow him as he then moved his couch struggling at first but ended up moving it so that he could move some floorboards. He then took out a a long trunk and then opened it it up to find a vial, a spear and what impressively a shiny golden old styled full face helmet that had no eye holes and a bit of a horn at the top.
"Has those been underneath his couch this whole time?" Lisa asked startled at they stared at it.
"Yep... Got the Helmet of Fate from Kent Nelson... I admired the Justice Society and... Well mild mannered small town Bud Grouse was Doctor Fate... The Spear and vial; I wrestled from Vandal Savage when I tracked him down... Heard a runaway Nazi was planning to use a powerful artefact to conquer the world and well... Had to keep this safe..." Mr Grouse then explained with a sigh as Zatanna reached out to the Helmet.
"The Helmet of Fate... Said to contain the spirit and power of Nabu one of the Lords of Order himself... I can just sense the power inside..." Zatanna remarked in awe as Mr Grouse swatted her hand away sternly. "What was that for?" Zatanna asked indignantly.
"Please... Do not touch the Helmet... For your sake... This and Nabu ended up almost running my life forever..." Mr Grouse then said as they blinked at him. "Listen... When you become Doctor Fate; you pretty much share the body with Nabu and between the mind of a normal human and a Lord of Order; it's no contest who will be the main driving force if you end up bickering... As time went on; Nabu began seeing the world as too chaotic and unable to bring itself to order on its own... He began going for more extreme solutions and... He tried to convince me that the world needed him more than it needed me..." Mr Grouse then said wiping away a tear before he went to his knees as they were taken aback.
Mr Grouse bursted into tears as he said "I remember the nightmares... Him encouraging me to surrender to him... More I put the blasted Helmet on... The more demanding he became... I just knew that if I put it on one more time... It would never come off... The nightmares... The daydreams of future possible disasters... I saw the world ended in a billion different ways through my time... The night that I decided to give up being Doctor Fate forever... I twas the first good sleep I had in a long while..." Mr Grouse cried as they looked at him in sympathy as they went to comfort him.
"Wow... I now regret all the trouble we have ever gave him..." Firestorm muttered out feeling guilty and Peacemaker did the same and then there was slow clapping. They looked and floating in the air was Klarion smirking as he held the vial and Spear.
"KLARION!" the Super Friends yelled out as Klarion laughed.
"Killer Frost did a poor job of getting the info from Vandal Savage but you all lead me to the Spear and blood so I thank you..." Klarion gloated as he turned himself intangible as Peacemaker threw his shield at him and Firestorm blasted at him.
He then opened up a portal and went through but Zee then sent out magical tendrils to grab at the spear but Klarion pulled at it as he then reached to the portal. Zee focused her magic and was glowing dark purple and her eyelids disappeared. She focused her magic and pulled at the spear which ended up breaking the vial and the spearhead broke off as it touched the blood and it went through the portal.
Klarion panicked as he went through the portal and it disappeared. Zatanna landed with a thud right at the helmet and touched it. She felt a vision of Metropolis covered with demons as the skies were dark red; an adult version of her in a dark purple royal dress with a crown upon her head sat on a throne grinning evilly as sitting on her knees was an adult Lincoln dressed as some sort of dark knight and chained to the throne were Kara and Diana scantily clad.
"What was that..." Zatanna muttered as she snapped out of it and Peacemaker picked up the broken spear.
"Well... The Spear is now pretty much hopeless and can't do anything now right... So that's a plus..." Peacemaker said optimistically as they hoped and Zatanna then used her magic to fix the house.
"Wow... Been a while since I saw the magic stuff..." Mr Grouse remarked in awe and he waved to them. "So I guess you will be going now..." Mr Grouse asked as Zatanna nodded and looked to the Helmet.
"IF you want... We have our own lair to keep this safe..." Zatanna offered and Mr grouse looked conflicted and ended up nodding.
"Be careful and do NOT let anyone wear this..." Mr Grouse warned them seriously making them gulp.
Tala was on her throne in Hell as it was surrounded by Grundy and Killer Frost; Klarion was on his knees poking pleadingly as Tala was glaring at him while holding the broken spearhead. "Mother please... We can still use the spearhead..." Klarion begged as Tala put up he rother hand to silence him.
"Yes we can... It absorbed enough of the blood to be able to use its power for my plan... Hope that you can carry out the next tasks that I give you... Also remember the failure of the recruits you have brought is a failure on your part as well..." Tala told him sternly and Klarion nodded as Killer Frost glared at them both. "At least I got another glimpse of Zee's potential and the strength she already has..." Tala then remarked looking with pride.
"Okay... Your family was living right next to Doctor Fate the whole time you were in Royal Woods and you never knew?" Barbara said in awe in the Quantum Unfolding Storage Area and and Lincoln put the Helmet of Fate with the other mementos on display.
"I thought that he was a grouch but to think that he was pretty much tortured by the magic god that he had to share his body with when he was a superhero..." Lynn Jr muttered in awe as Lincoln nodded.
"Yeah; wish we knew to give him more space..." Lincoln sighed as they stared to leave but Zee looked to the helmet.
"What was that vision? Why did I see that?" Zee asked in a whisper as she felt something in her head.
"THAT COULD BE YOUR FATE BUT IT CAN BE PREVENTED. I SEE GREAT DARK UNTAPPED MAGICAL POWER IN YOU. POWER THAT CAN BE USED TO SAVE THE FATE OF THIS WORLD." spoke a loud booming voice in Zee's head but she waved it off as she left with the others.