Out on the boardwalk

Cries of pain echoed through the amphitheatre of the Fortress of Solitude, and the three Kryptonian women were prone on their backs, in the throes of labour.

“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU FOR THIS, SON OF EL! WHEN I’M… AAAAARGH!” Slamming her fist against the crystal floor with enough **** to crack the surface like glass. Faora-Ui groaned and wailed as a contraction cut through her like a knife.

The woman’s pants were torn open to make room as she began to crown, screaming again while robots hovered nearby with towels, attending the Dark Knight as he crouched on one knee and helped her deliver.

Nearby, Kara and Karen were in the same situation. Their own pregnancies had reached their peak, and their water broke minutes after Faora was carefully lowered to the floor with a pillow under her back and another under her head to rest over. A mechanical servant dabbed her sweating brow with a sponge as she cried out, wracked with pain as the need to push cut through her.

Nearby, Karen was in the same state, screaming as her firstborn was being pushed out and made her grip the floor so hard her finger dug through the crystalline surface like it was Styrofoam. Kara was lying next to her, just as paralyzed by the same state, breathing slowly and then rearing back to cry out as the need to push overcame her.

Cradling the firstborn in his arms and making sure it was bundled up in a blanket to keep warm, Clark looked down at the child’s appearance and froze. It was a boy… That he was at least sure about. But the newborn looked nothing like him or his mother. The newborn’s skin bore scales on his shoulders and back. A stubby tail grew out from underneath him, and just at his brow, where there was a tuft of dark hair, were a pair of nubs for horns. Moving to hand the newborn over to one of the robots still tending to Karen’s needs, Clark stopped when Power Girl grabbed his arm in a vice grip and glared back at him with red glowing eyes. Her lips pulled back in a pain-filled sneer as she glared up at the man.

“YOU!” She breathed, inhaling sharply as she **** herself to push. “This is all YOUR fault!”

“Karen…”

“None of this would have happened if it weren’t for YOU and that stupid parole hearing you…. HNNNNNGH!” Rearing back and screaming out loud, Karen let go of his arm to clutch at her belly; her second child was coming, and she could no longer focus on anything else.

“I HATE YOU!” Screamed Kara nearby. Hot tears ran down her cheeks as she bore down and pushed. “YOU RUINED MY LIFE!!!”

Stunned, silent, and feeling too guilty to speak, Superman sat and watched on as the three gave birth to his children.

***

One hour later…

The Fortress was unusually quiet after the loud and anxiety-fueled moment of the three women giving birth. Almost an hour after the hectic crisis, the newborns were asleep, nestled together and wrapped in blankets for warmth. At the same time, they were being taken care of by their mothers and the robotic staff of the Fortress, along with Batman’s careful eye. With the worst of it dealt with and under control, Bruce had offered to go to the Fortress’s laboratory to investigate the kryptonite shard Faora-Ui had brought with her in the hopes of getting answers.

During that time, Clark and Diana shared a brief, personal moment with Kara and Karen. The two mothers were exhausted, sore, but alright. Kara leaned her back against the wall with her twins sleeping in her arms, while Karen was resting on a couch with her triplets in her arms. A look of serene peace on her tired face as she pulled them in close to embrace.

They were small, wriggling hybrids of kryptonian and something else. With traces of golden fur, stubby horns, and tiny, scaled tails curled around their legs as they slept in a nest of blankets in her arms, making the woman sigh when she felt a hand rest on her shoulder. Looking up, Karen blinked to focus on Clark, who was kneeling to address her, eyeing her and their children.

“Hey… Clark…” She greeted sleepily. “I’m sorry about… Earlier.”

She closed her eyes as if to focus herself, pulling her triplets closer as she sat up, only for Clark to insist she rest and recover her strength.

“Bruce explained it all while you were out. Whatever is affecting us is also affecting our ability to metabolize solar energy. You went through a 9-month-long pregnancy in 90 minutes. The hormone overload was likely a lot to handle for...”

“I don’t hate you,” Karen said with a straight face, but didn’t look in his direction. “Whatever is happening to us, it's not just you who is having episodes of no control. This isn’t your fault.”

Slowly forming a smile, but looking away, Clark got to his feet. Looking toward the nearest robotic servant, the android turned its blue-chrome-coloured head to address the man of steel.

“Make sure they are well tended to and alert me if anything happens while I am not here.”

~I will do as commanded, Kal, son of El.~ The android responded mechanically with a slight bow.

Turning his attention lastly to Faora, she watched from afar, a rare softness in her eyes, primarily due to the fatigue from giving birth to twins so quickly. At the same time, three androids made sure she was comfortable and well cared for.

Clark and Diana had slipped away to the Fortress’s menagerie. An alien zoo comprising creatures thought to be rare or extinct, where they came from. Clark sat on the edge of a crystalline bench that perched before an exhibit featuring a family of waterfowl from a world where the atmosphere was methane and the atmosphere was 20 times Earth's density. An overhead mechanical dispenser fed the animals, raining food down into a pool of liquid mercury; the fowl quickly swam in and began pecking at the surface. Lacing his fingers together, he rested his chin over his enclosed hands, barely registering Diana resting a hand over his shoulder.

“They’re… beautiful, in their own way.”

“They come from a methane-rich environment that is toxic to human life. From their confinement records, I recall that their planet was struck by a meteorite, triggering a chemical reaction in the atmosphere. Not unlike what happened here on earth millions of years ago.”

“I was talking about your children, Clark.”

Breathing in deeply, Clark closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. “I know… Every time I look at them, I see what I’ve done to Kara and Karen. The infection, the blackouts… A part of me wonders if that was really ME when…”

Diana sat beside him, her hand on his knee.

“I know you didn’t choose this, Clark. And thank you, Athena, for intervening when I changed. With the bracelets gone, there was no telling what I was likely capable of. And the children… they’re innocent. They all are. None of this is your fault.” Her voice was soft, almost serene. Then, abruptly, her grip tightened over his knee to the point he felt uncomfortable. Looking up at her, he saw her eyes blazing, her lips curled back in anger.

“But you should have stopped Faora sooner. You should have…” She cut herself off, eyes flashing with sudden shock at her actions. She stood, pacing. “By Hera, why am I so angry? I feel… everything. All at once.”

Clark rose, reaching for her.

“Diana…” She spun, shoving him back against the bench, not hard enough to hurt, but enough to make him gasp. Her breath was hot against his neck as she collapsed on top of him.

“I want you. Right now. No restraint. No bracelets to hold me back.” She kissed him fiercely, hands roaming, but then pulled away, eyes wide with horror. “Gods, what am I doing? I’m not… this isn’t me.”

Rolling off of him, she sank to the floor, head in her hands. Hands, she looked over to find her bracelets missing. The anchors she relied on for emotional balance are now off-kilter.

“Without them, I’m… untamed. Wild. I feel the rage of the Amazons, the lust of that THING I turn into, the grief of what I’ve lost. All at once!”

Clark knelt beside her, pulling her close as she folded and leaned against his shoulder and chest. For a brief moment, there was only silence save for the occasional call of one of the exhibits.

“You’re still you, Diana. Stronger than any chain or bracelet. We’ll find a way to control this… Together.” Still sitting on the floor but regaining her sense of self, Diana nodded and smiled back in reassurance.

“I know. But it scares me… You don’t know how much you appreciate your self-control until it is stripped away.”

Sighing, Clark looked back at the exhibit in front of him and nodded. “Isn’t that true…”

***

Heading back from the menagerie to recollect their thoughts and bearings, Clark and Diana made their way to the amphitheatre to find Kara, Karen, and Faora-Ui fully recovered, tending to their children. Faora herself was sitting alone with her two bundles, eyeing the man of steel venomously but refusing to act on her anger. Yet.

The fortress’s robots had provided cribs for the newborns to be nestled into for both warmth and care. Small metal and crystalline devices beneath the cribs carried them, levitating under their own power and following either the mechanical staff that tended the fortress or hovering around their respective parents to check on their children.

Seeing the man sheepishly make his way inside, Clark worried for the worst when Kara and Karen stormed up to him. Diana herself gently rested a hand over his shoulder when the first of the two came up to him. But instead of striking him or making some hurtful comment, Kara gently grabbed his free hand and pulled him with her to the two cribs floating near the seating where she and Karen had been sitting. Once he was at the center of the bench, Kara gently pushed him to the seat.

“Sit.”

The moment he was in the center seat of the bench, Kara and Karen took seats at either side of him. Awkwardly, he tried to speak, but Kara stopped him with a raise of her hand.

“Before you say anything, we want you to know something first.” Closing her eyes, Kara breathed in and looked Clark straight in the eye to let him know how serious she was. “You aren’t at fault here. None of this is your fault.”

“And none of this is our fault either.” Karen chimed in.

“We’ve been remembering more and more about what happened back then. It's been coming back in pieces at a time, but… Even then, I could tell I wasn’t me.”

“And neither were you.” Karen smiled, resting a hand on Clark’s own as he sat with his head down.

“I…” Slowly nodding when he looked to either woman, Clark gave a small smile. “Thank you.”

Feeling Kara pull his arm out to rest over both her hands, she gave him a caring pat over the back of his hand with hers.

“How touching…” Faora hissed from he seat, glaring at the trio as she sat near the wall, her arms crossed while robots attended her twins. “No wonder the house of El collapsed so easily…”

“So says the bitch who submitted first!” Karen spat, glaring back at Faora. Then gave the woman a grin as he leaned in close to Clark. “Then again, if my memory is right, you wanted it more than we did.”

“Slut!” Kara smirked along with her older variant, making Faora’s eyes glow red.

At that, the overhead intercom chimed in, with the voice of Batman calling out for everyone there to hear him.

“Everyone, I’m in the laboratory here in the fortress… I think you might want to see this.”

***

Gathering everyone to head to the laboratory in the fortress did not take long; the robotic staff helped escort the children while keeping an eye on Faora-Ui. When they got there, the large chamber was dark, unnaturally so. The lights had been dimmed, so there was enough light to see, but compared to the outside and the rest of the fortress, it was almost blindingly dark.

“When you said you were going to the lab to work, I didn’t think you were going to make it feel like Gotham, too.” Kara squinted. Even though the darkness didn’t affect her or the other Kryptonians, it was still noticeable.

“I’ve turned down the lights for all your benefits, you’ll understand once I explain why,” Batman spoke over his shoulder as he brought up a display screen on the wall showing the spectrometric results of the shard of kryptonite that was now contained in a lead case on the table.

Superman looked up at the screen, viewing the chemical and radioscopic readings from the kryptonite, as Batman turned to face everyone and pointed over to the readings.

“From what I’ve been able to gather, this crystal formation has been in the phantom zone for a while, likely meant to absorb its energies and bring back samples when it was dropped into the zone for tests before Clark’s people used the reality as storage and prison space. This shard likely broke off whatever scanning equipment they used during that time. Even so, they determined the reality was harmless, and to a degree it was. But they never found out what long-term effects the phantom zone would have.”

“So… How long has this thing been in there soaking up phantom energy?” Clark asked, crossing his arms as he observed the readout.”

“Likely 35,000 years, maybe longer. It’s hard to get anything exact because of the nature of the phantom zone itself.”

“What does that even mean?” Diana asked, still not understanding. A gentle hand rested on her shoulder, belonging to Karen, when she stepped forward with her newborn cradled in her arms.

“The phantom zone was used as a pocket reality to contain convicts; the energies in that reality stunt cellular decay, but all other activities remain active. You can’t starve to **** or grow old; you have as long as your term of penance to consider your actions before being let out.”

“How… Humane.” Batman retorted, his eyes narrowing. “The crystal has been soaking up energy since it was in there. So when it was removed, it began emitting that very radiation, as most irradiated kryptonite does. But there’s a catch.”

Pressing a button on the screen, the display showed the effects of phantom zone radiation when exposed to solar radiation; the wavelengths shown on the radioscopic scanner shifted and warped wildly when Batman continued his lecture.

“The phantom zone is a self-contained reality; there’s no sun that I know of inside of it. So when it started mingling with the light of a yellow sun, the radiation changed… Frequency.”

“Turning us into those… Creatures.” Clark sighed, shaking his head.

“The yellow sun is your species’ battery. Under normal conditions, it charges you — strength, speed, heat vision. This shard? It’s been marinating in the Phantom Zone for millennia. No light, no decay, just raw entropic stasis energy. Bring it into our reality, expose it to a yellow sun, and the two wavelengths interfere. The result is a runaway feedback loop.”

He switched to a new slide: a simulation of the speed of cellular division.

“Every time your cells absorb solar energy now, the phantom radiation forces them to hyper-accelerate mitosis, protein synthesis, everything. That’s why Kara’s wound closed in under an hour. It’s also why the pregnancies compressed nine months into ninety minutes — the fetuses are growing at the same unnatural rate.”

Diana crossed her arms, voice low. “And the bite?”

Batman’s cowl tilted slightly toward her shoulder — the faint scar line from Supergirl’s teeth still visible.

“Saliva. Even a trace amount can carry enough contaminated cells to set off the cascade in a new host. Non-Kryptonians don’t have the same solar reservoirs you do, so the change hits them harder and faster. Their physiology tries to adapt to the energy overload… and fails in predictable ways.” He let that hang for a second. “If this spreads beyond the current carriers through bites, scratches, or even prolonged salivary contact, we’re not looking at a Justice League problem anymore. We’re looking at an extinction-level vector.”

Faora snorted from the corner, cradling one of her twins.

“Then perhaps the Son of El should have kept his cousins on a shorter leash.”

Power Girl shot her a glare. “Says the woman who brought the damn rock here in the first place.”

“Whose cells are those?” Kara asked, raising a brow in confusion.

“I took samples while you were all predisposed,” Bruce explained.

“We were in LABOUR!”

Calming the woman down, Clark nodded to Batman to continue.

“Watch what happens when I expose it to yellow solar radiation.” Turning a dial made the display grow brighter. When it did, the cells grew agitated and began to change. When he cut the light, the cells returned to normal, but the phantom zone radiation had increased slightly. “As you can see, there’s an intense reaction, and the radiation already in your systems compounds further. Your cells are so soaked in this radiation that even passing a trace of it onto another subject is enough to share.”

“Leading to what happened to me,” Diana whispered. She crossed her arms to hug herself. “Is there a cure?”

Showing a different screen, Batman showed another slide of cells, dormant and in the dark, but unlike the other sample, the phantom radiation was more decayed.

“I’ve kept this sample in total darkness since I found out the reaction to solar energies. In the last 5 hours, the buildup has been ebbing. At the rate of decay, the cells will be radiation-free in 87 hours.”

“So there IS a cure.”

“And all we have to do is stay in the dark for half a week, and we’ll be fine.”

Clark tilted his head and squinted, hearing something only he and his two cousins could make out now that he was listening in with their super hearing.

“I… We may have complications there, Batman.”

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s… A fisherman out in the Atlantic…” Kara listened in, her eyes shifting as she listened in on paramedics arriving by helicopter, tending to the trolley captain. “No one is hurt… But he says a pair of dragons attacked him…”

Sharing a look with the man of steel, Supergirl’s face went pale. “He said they’re heading towards the shore!”

Diana gasped with her hands to her open mouth. “Arthur!”

***

There was hardly any time to discuss what to do; Kara and Karen were still recuperating from labour, and someone had to keep an eye on Faora while this crisis was being handled, which left only Superman and Wonder Woman as the only two who could arrive fast enough to face their transformed friends and prevent any further catastrophe. Stepping out towards the gaping hole that used to be the door to the fortress of solitude, Clark and Diana hesitated and traded looks, just as Clark took a step forward and extended his arm out to be exposed to sunlight.

“Are you sure about this?” Diana asked, watching the man’s hand come into sunlight, and it immediately began to change.

“No… But if we… If WE…” His size doubled instantly; the sound of his bones shifting and his skin twitching made the man gasp and ride out the changes before he could continue speaking, his voice deepening like gravel being poured. “If we don’t… don’t do anything, they’ll never… Forgive themselves for what they… Might do.”

Falling to all fours and making his way out into the cool arctic air, Superman flapped his wings and looked back to the entrance, waiting for Diana to step outside.

“Come outside, I’ll keep an eye on you, too.”

Making a face of annoyance, Diana took a step forward with her arm out. The moment the sunlight hit her fingers, Diana’s eyes went wide with excitement, her heart pounding in her chest as the changes overtook her.

Clark could only watch as the Amazon woman quickly expanded, growing taller and larger, her skin turning a dark hue while black fur matching the colour of her hair crept up and over her entire body. Her hands and feet became clawed while a tail grew out from behind her. By now, her shoulders were broader, as were her hips, and her thighs were expanding, larger and stronger. Her neck grew longer, and a second and third row of breasts formed below her originals, lining down her chest when she fell to all fours with a heavy lurch. The last of her changes were coursing through her as she shook her head, sprouting horns while her face pushed forward into a lupine snout.

With her wings outstretched, Wonder Woman gave off a bellowing roar, her attention snapping to anything that moved when her eyes squared directly towards Superman.

“Diana?”

Lowering her head and prowling towards Clark, the Man of Steel kept his eyes on the transformed Amazon turned Kryptodrake as she circled him like a predatory cat.

“Diana, it's me, Clark. I know this is disorienting, but you’re stronger than this. Fight it, I need you here with me.”

Snapping her tail and growling back at the male Kryptodrake, Diana didn’t answer, her gaze still wild and savage as she looked for an opening. In the second, she found one, she lunged for Clark, the two grappling and tumbling in the snow and ice as Diana snarled back at the other Kryptodrake. More skillful than he, Diana spun them around until she was right on top of him, pinning him down with her claws as she glared down at him. Rolling her onto her back, Clark manages to keep her there. He was expecting more resistance, but instead, the dragoness allowed him to keep her down.

There were several seconds where nothing happened save for Wonder Woman glaring up at the Man of Steel, breathing hard with her teeth bared… Until she pressed her snout against his in an affectionate nuzzle that led to a deep kiss.

Pulling away slowly, her breathing calming, Diana's eyes seemed softer, more level-headed as she raised her horned head and licked Clark on the nose. Gently giving his snout more kisses as the two rolled in the snow, and she lounged on top of him.

“Diana?”

“I’m in… Control… Thank you… Clark.”

Nuzzling him again, she got up off the kryptodrake to allow him to roll onto his feet and spread his wings. Butting her horned head against his neck, the two launched up into the air at supersonic speed, hoping that if they flew fast enough, they might catch their friends in time.

***

The pier at the Jersey Shoreline…

Panic turned to screams as patrons of the pier carnival and the beaches fled at the sight of two monstrous creatures lumbering across the sandy landscape. They looked like dragons, sporting scaly hides and fur coats across their bodies. Their feathered wings tucked to their sides as neatly as a bird would. Elegant yet lumbering, the two creatures made their way through the beachfront, bobbing their horned heads to the sights and sounds around them. The larger of the two had a sheen of golden-blonde fur across his green, fish-scaled hide, with mighty, swooping horns like a bident over his skull, and a beard that trailed down his elongated neck. The other was a sleek, red-furred creature with hints of green in her scales and an almost feminine poise as she paused and looked toward the fleeing humans running off the beach. Her head was adorned with three spaded horns, tilting in confusion to the fleeing crowd, then she turned and butted her head against her consort's chest with affection.

When the pair had their fill of the fishing boat from earlier, they scared the captain half to **** but left him alive. They had made their way to the closest shoreline when their snouts picked up scents that promised more for the two to eat. When they landed on the shore, their appearance sparked immediate panic.

Lumbering down the beach and ruffling their wings, the two creatures found the source of the smell that attracted them when they approached a fish and chip restaurant by the pier. The building had evacuated in a frenzy when the red-furred dragoness dug through the roof and wall, nosed her way through the gaping hole, and reared back with a mouthful of cooked food left abandoned on the tables she had managed to lick clean.

One of the restaurant staff could not make it out as fast as everyone else and cowered at the corner of the restaurant’s kitchen while the two monsters scrounged for something to eat. The cook, a heavy-set man with a bad leg, was sitting on the floor across from where the emergency exit was and whimpered for his own safety when a portion of the roof was pried off its moorings and tossed aside by the two dragons. Who had by now spotted the whimpering man who crossed his arms over his balding head to guard himself as he feared for his life.

For a long time, nothing happened; the air filled with nothing but his simpering in terror, especially when he felt a shadow loom over him. But then… Nothing. Slowly opening his eyes and lowering his arms, he found the red one had leaned her snout into the kitchen, sniffing at the man with curiosity. Then she licked him across the face, gently, not unlike a friendly farm animal expecting a treat from a handler.

The cook was beside himself as he looked up at the two creatures. The red one reared her head back while the golden-furred one leaned down to sniff at the man the other spotted. Sniffing at his hair, then ignoring him to lick at the door to the cooler and pry it open, sinking his teeth into the bulk of fish stored there and pulling it up and out for the two dragons to consume.

Slowly getting to his feet, the man hobbled to the emergency exit and fled as fast as he could, only looking back to find the pair eating the frozen fish instead of him. Hobbling out the door and only looking back to check where the two creatures were, his eyes went wide when he finally saw the scope of their size and scrambled to get away as fast as he physically could.

The two creatures continued to eat the frozen fish before them, clawing at the furniture to reach it, when they heard something heavy land behind them. Rearing his head back and narrowing his eyes with a growl, the blonde furred kryptodrake sneered at the arrival of two dark-furred kryptodrakes who stood several meters away, their wings folding behind their backs as they cautiously stared back at their transformed friends.

“By Hera…” Gasped Diana, staring up at Arthur and Mera. The two hunched down, looking ready to fight the newcomers, as Diana stared in shock. “Do they even… Recognize us?”

“They’re probably… Overwhelmed. Running… On instinct.”

Feeling threatened, Mera and Arthur began to circle the two, their horned heads low and tails lashing angrily behind them. Looking around himself, Superman was grateful that everyone who could get hurt had fled the beach long ago when Arthur and Mera arrived. Leaving the beach empty save for the four of them.

Trying to appear as harmless as possible, Clark slowly approached his two transformed friends in the hopes of reaching out to either of them. Keeping low and looking non-threatening, he extended a claw out like a gesture of greeting.

Arthur? Are you… Still in there… My friend?” He asked, speech still difficult in this form, but possible.

The blonde furred dragon tilted his head and sniffed at the claw. Clark thought he was reaching the fledgling dragon, but Arthur snarled and took a swipe at Clark’s paw. Unfurling his wings, Aquaman roared and attacked Clark, body tackling him to the ground with a speed Superman never seen in the king of Atlantis.

“SUPERMAN!” Gasped Diana, watching the two struggle and tumble in the sand, with Superman trying desperately not to harm his friend or himself in Arthur’s current state.

She was about to intervene when she heard Mera growl, keeping her eyes on the scarlet dragoness. Diana reared back and remained cautious for any attack the transformed queen might muster.

“Please… Sister… I don’t want… To fight.”

Unfurling her own wings, Mera’s eyes began to glow an intense light blue, and static energy began to course up her spread out wings like static charge. Traces of the ocean started to snake out of the tide and trace over Mera’s wings, pooling together into an orb of solid water held up by her hydrokinetic powers.

Behind Diana, Clark continued to struggle to contain Aquaman as he snapped his jaws at the Man of Steel or tried to rake his claws against his black fur and scales. Managing to pin Arthur down, Clark winced as his shoulder healed.

“Arthur… We’re Trying… To HELP you!”

Too far gone to understand what he was saying, Aquaman growled as his blue eyes suddenly began to glow red. Blinking down in surprise, Clark was caught off guard when Arthur blasted him… With kryptonian heat vision.