Waking up a second time.

Several hours later…

Sighing as she stepped out of the hot shower with a towel wrapped around her hair and a night coat around her body, Lois Lane smiled as she made her way to the bed she shared with Clark and just draped herself over the sheets, a smile on her face that refused to go away. “Ahhh…. Nothing like a day off to let all the kinks out. Clark should learn to relax a little bit every now and then. If he stays any wooden, he’s going to give himself splinters.”

Sitting up and pulling the towel off her hair to shake it loose and let dry, Lois turned on the television which was showing Kat Grant on the scene reporting the bank robbery halted by the combined efforts of Superman and Wonder Woman. The men being loaded into a police van one at a time while the footage showed pictures of Superman being blasted by a kryptonite gun before being hauled off to safety by the amazon princess.

“Ooooh, THAT had to hurt.” Lois winced, rubbing the spot on her own chest where Superman was hit. “I hope he’s feeling better after something like that.”

***

Slowly stirring awake to the sight of the open sky overhead, Clark squinted and lifted a hand to cover his eyes, seeing a bird fly by, lowering his arm, he heard a woman’s voice beside him hum out a soft moan, one that sobered him awake instantly. Opening his eyes wide, the man of steel sat up to discover several things that made him go beat red. One; he was naked. Two, Diana and Karen were asleep on either side of him. Three. THEY were naked. And four, they were on the roof of the Lexcorp skyscraper.

Looking to either of the two women on the gravel covered roof, Clark shook at their shoulders to wake them both up.

“Diana, Karen…” Whispered Clark as he tried to shake Karen awake, the woman scrunching her face and turning over.

“Hmm… In a minute…”

“We don’t HAVE a minute!”

“Ugh… Dammit, I’m starving, is anyone else… Starving?” Opening her eyes, the blonde Kryptonian looked around and suddenly sat up, crossing her arms over her chest, and covering her body as best she could once she realised where she was and the state, they were all in. “What the hell?!”

“BY HERA!” Cried out Diana, finally waking up herself and trying to retain her dignity like the others were once they found out what had happened. “Again?!”

Getting to their feet, the trio looked around and didn’t know what to do next. Honestly? They TRIED to do something about it, and it led to a triple body tango above the clouds… For 4 fours. Even now the three looked to each other with a strange attraction that made them slowly move closer until Clark shook his head and stepped back.

“Please tell me we’re not going to have sex on this man’s roof…” Worried Karen, the prospect becoming more enticing as she tried to fight it.

“We need to get some help, like some REAL help.”

“And some clothes!” Squirmed Diana, looking around and praying the building didn’t have any security cameras looking at her.

Taking both women’s hands, Clark made a plan of action and took to the air. “IF that stuff is still in our system, then we need to get to the fortress and find out what it is and how to get it out of our system, right now.”

Taking flight, Superman with Wonder Woman and Power Girl in tow flew as fast as he could over to the north pole. The three of them a blur to the human eye as they passed countries in the span of a second and made it to the crystalline structure of the fortress of solitude, all the way to the golden door that locked it from any trespassers.

The moment they landed in the snow, Diana shivered, tip toeing in the freezing cold as Clark went to the key to open the door. A key forged with the metal of a dwarf star too heavy for any human to lift.

“Cold, cold, cold, COLD, cold, cold!” Complained Diana, trying to stay warm in the sub-zero environment. By the time the door was opened, the trio ran inside and closed the door behind them.

The moment it was, a small crew of automatons arrived with blankets in hand, the machines human in shape with a chrome finish and blue chest plates with the House of ‘El’ emblazoned on their chest.

‘Welcome back Kal’El, Kara Jor’El, and Diana of Themyscira, it has been… 14 hours… Since your last visit, how are you today?’

“Clothes NAOW!!!” Cried out Karen as she pulled a couple of robes offered by the machines and bundled herself up, Diana wore twice as many both to recoup being so cold earlier and to make sure she and the others aren’t leering at each other in this crisis.

Once everyone had gotten dressed and kept a wide berth from each other, Clark turned his attention to the automated staff of the fortress. “B-12, is the record room available?”

‘Yes Kal’El, our record hall is fully reconstructed and ready for use, it houses information on over a million world Krypton had on record, would you like to go to the record room now?’ Asked the polite machine.

“Yes, come on, if there’s anything going on about us, the room will be able to find out.”

***

The record keeping room was a large auditorium, the walls, crystalline in structure were in fact massive display screens that surrounded a podium at the heart of the chamber where a plinth stood with many crystal controls at its center. The three made their way into the great chamber and Clark immediately went to the controls to speak to the fortress’s artificial intelligence and record system.

“Computer, the three of us have been exposed to a chemical from Almerac, something meant for royal ceremonies. Can you ascertain its chemical make up and use?”

The entire chamber lit up with a soft white glow and the screens displayed the planet Almerac in view for the three people looking up at it. A beam of light scanned the three heroes before giving a chemical display on the screen to the right and a mechanical voice spoke up, giving a history lesson of the chemical it found.

“The tonic of Bonding. The dynasties of Almerac have maintained a steady lineage either through shrewd statesmanship, planned marriages and spoils of conquest. However, in circumstances when marriages would be turbulent, the tonic of bonding would be administered to both parties of a planned marriage to seal their bond. The tonic is a very complex cocktail of hormones and enzymes that stimulate the centers of the brain responsible for emotional attachment while also increasing activity in the hypothalamus, heightening survival drives to mate and reproduce.”

A re-enactment of a betrothal was showed on the left side of the great auditorium. The text at the bottom claiming it was the marriage between the new Almeracian King and Queen 12,000 years ago. Both parties took a stopper of the tonic and allowed a drop to be swallowed each before sealing their act in a kiss. “A single drop would ensure the couple would remain together regardless of incompatible personalities AND ensured the couple would sire an heir regardless of age or health. Thus has the Almeracian dynasties maintained such rule for so long.”

Raising her hand, as if asking permission for a question to the disembodied voice, Diana looked to her two compatriots who bundled themselves up tightly in their excess of robes to keep warm and avoid seeing their bodies. “How many doses do we have?”

The screen showed a display of all three individuals and the computer bringing up a readout of how overdosed the trio were. All three of them feeling their blood run cold when the number reached triple digits.

“Uhm… Wow!”

“Yeah…” Worried Clark, seeing the number on the screen. “That’s… That’s a lot of doses.

“Well, it was a pretty big bottle.” Diana sighed, shaking her head.

“Polluted with a chemical that makes you fall in love at first sight and keep you permanently in the first day of spring EVERY day… Well, I guess things can’t get much worse than that. Right?” Asked Karen out loud, seeing her number was 3428 doses, Diana was 3416 and Clark was 3556.

“Can you create a cure?”

The computer stopped showing the display and went about analyzing the chemical compound for several minutes before coming up with an answer. “The chemical makeup of the tonic is both complex and made from rare elements. Synthesis of a cure in the amount needed to cure all subjects can be created in… 65 days.”

“Can’t get much worse… Right.”