Star Sapphire

A familiar face filled the screen, lack hair framing her face, and Lois shivered. The camera panned down the plunging neckline and to the purple-white heart centered on the crotch of the skin-tight suit hugging the athletic, toned, perfect body. The background of the picture was a blank field of color that pulsed slightly between white and violet.

"Greetings candidate. You have great love within your heart." The voice was cruel and mocking, yet sensual. "But you cannot access it, not as you are."

The longer Lois looked, the less sure that the costume was actually clothes. It almost looked like skinpaint. She could see the woman's nipples through the material.

Lois had never considered herself to be a lesbian. But something had always drawn her to the Star Sapphires—and she was not the only one. Late one night, when the day's articles were submitted, surfing the internet with a glass of wine and naked from the waist down, she had come across a...fansite. Most of the heroines and villainesses had them. Candid camera shots. Wardrobe malfunctions. Cosplay, sometimes, or photo manipulations. Fanfiction. It helped that so many of the heroines went about showing so much skin, hiding so little of their perfect bodies... and because she was a little drunk, she had gotten excited. Perhaps a little too excited. And rubbed herself raw. Thinking back on it now, Lois blushed.

The sun lamps against the walls began to heat up. Lois worried for a moment, but suddenly felt...good. All the aches, nausea, and fever she'd been experiencing vanished in moments as she soaked up the rays.

"There is a spectrum of emotions. Each emotion has a color."

The woman held her hands apart, and Lois saw a glowing purple ring on her finger. Between her hands, a rainbow blossomed.

"Most humans have too many mingled emotions. They do not feel strongly enough to respond to the violet light of love. Yet what if we could filter out the anger, fear, and avarice?"

The ring flared and the orange, red, and yellow fell out of the rainbow, which became dominated by a violet stripe, just tinged with blue and green at the edges.

The lights continued to intensify, and though Lois knew she should start to feel the burn from the lamps, it felt no more than being out on a summer's day...albeit naked.

Lois' eyes focused on the woman's crotch. It must be skinpaint, or something. She could clearly see her vulva, outlined in dark metallic purple. Not just a cameltoe, but the actual hint of the lips hanging out of her labia. The degree of her fixation on the sight was somewhat disturbing, but not enough for her to look away.

"There is a way, candidate. Our ally on Earth, Lex Luthor, has showed us this process. You have already been inoculated with a virus containing Kryptonian DNA. The lamps have activated those cells, rendering you **** to the mutative effects of Kryptonite—radiation that effects both mind and body. We will use this to purge you of these negative emotions, and become a worthy bearer of the violet light of love. Is that what you wish? To become a member of the Star Sapphire Corps?"

The light was almost blinding now, even with the goggles, but Lois felt...alive, almost burning with excess energy. Even the tinge of pleasant alcoholic haze had vanished. She felt better than she ever had in her life...but also deathly afraid.

As a reporter, she had seen the Star Sapphires. They were villains...or had been. With powers that rivaled Green Lantern's. Comporting through the air, almost naked, not caring who saw them... Yet hadn't Wonder Woman also been a Star Sapphire for a while? And if it worked...Lois would have the power to escape. To find out what happened to the other women, and bring Luthor to justice.

Lois realized she was making arguments for herself, trying to justify a decision she had already made.

"Yes," she said aloud.

A panel disappeared from the ceiling, and a small arm began to descend. On the end of it was a chunk of crystal. For lack of better options, Lois steeled herself. Whatever was going to happen, she couldn't run from it.