<Kansas>

“You kept me waiting. All night. And a good part of the day.” The simmering anger was unmistakable, and it took all of her efforts to keep them from exploding. That, and the fact that they are still with the Kents, made all the difference.

Clark hadn’t even changed back to his mild-mannered secret identity when he found himself in front of a furious wife that is Lois Lane. Despite the fact that the partner that she was staring at is much more taller, way heavier and one of the most powerful superhuman on Earth, it was she who is doing the interrogation today. Arms crossed and looking all pissed, she was on warpath. It was lucky that both of them are having the ‘talk’ at the barn, rather than to be at house. Oh what he wouldn’t give now for Ma Kent to sweep out from the kitchen with her prized apple pie to save the day and rescue him from this couple’s talk.

“I was cold from all the waiting. All night. And in the morning. For no reason. Again. Remind me again whose idea it was to come and spend some ‘quality time’ together in Kansas with family?”

“Lois, I can explain…”

“Oh this better be a good one. Last I check, there was nothing happening up North. At least nothing NEWSworthy that needed the attention of Superman. Or at the minimum Clark Kent.”

“Well, Kara got into a spot at the Fortress. The security system went haywire, and she was trapped. I had to get her out.”

“mmmHmmm. That needed twelve hours? Remind me again what are your powersets again? Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten about using superspeed with everything that you were trying to do.”

Noticing the colour that seemed to rise from underneath his blue collar upwards, a bulb went off in her head. Something that was hanging in the air and in both their minds for some time.

“So, did you fuck her?”

Uneasy silence. Which confirmed that fact. To a certain aspect, it was also sweet that at least there’s still men out there who actually feel bad for having sex behind the wife’s back.

“So you did. I assume that’s why they reported an odd tremor up north that wouldn’t stop. Did you enjoy it? No never mind, don’t answer that.” Seeing the sheepish look on her husband’s face, plus the fact that it was almost noon, made that point moot.

“Did SHE enjoy it?”

A long pause, before he replied meekly. “I think so.” Not hard for the renowned journalist to read between the lines that it must have been the best sex that both Superman and Supergirl have ever had in their life, able to thoroughly go at each other with at the peak of their powers. And then some.

“She better. Talk about such a big sacrifice. From me.” That brought an involuntary frown to her husband’s face, and she couldn’t help but move the edge of the lips upwards slightly at that reaction. For Clark is such a straight arrow, that he couldn’t even attempt to do a poker face.

Her accusing stare softened somewhat, and then she let out a long sigh before sitting back on their bed. Superman quickly came over and put his hands over her back and shoulders, as Lois laid against him on the side. They sat for a while as Clark rubbed his hand up and down his wife’s arm, even as his body’s naturally warmer stance continued to heat her up just by being next to her.

“Since we are in a holiday mood, I suppose this would have to do for Kara’s seasonal gift for the year don’t you think?” She then looked up at her husband, whose puzzled look remained. “Come on Clark. You know I’ve talked about it before, with you. I suppose you couldn’t help yourself this time around, seeing how much she has matured. It’s something I’ve been dreading for a while now, and no matter how we avoid the subject, I think it’s something I just have to accept. That WE have to accept. It’s going to take some getting used to though, seeing that I will need to share my husband for the greater good.”

She suddenly found herself looking into the deepest blue eyes of a man. “Lois, you are the only one for me. I know that Kara and I… we might be compatible, but there’s much more to a partnership than pure sex. Remember the scene in ‘Jerry Maguire’? It’s true Lois. You DO complete me; and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Does Kara agree?”

“She does. And even if she doesn’t, it’s not her choice to make. She regards me as family, nothing more. I love you with all my heart Lois, and nothing will change that.” With that, she found her mouth suddenly crushed by her man, the most powerful being on Earth, who literally gave her the most languid kiss that she has had in weeks.

When she came up for breath, panting slightly from the amazing sensation of that kiss, Lois stared back to look at the hunk of a man that is Superman. As they hugged each other, she couldn’t help but also think how lucky she is to have a man like him who truly loved him back, for better for worse, and through thick and thin. Notwithstanding the numerous times she had been pulled out from the various predicaments that she found herself in while investigating leads.

Sometimes, all of this will have to be enough.

“Since you’re not so forthcoming with it, maybe I’ll call Kara instead for the detailed low-down.” That resulting gasp and the widening of Clark’s eyes brought a giggle to his wife at her tease. “As I recall, you have superstamina to go with the array of powers. Let’s put it to the test shall we?”

<Midvale>

“Whatever happened to you?”

“What do you mean?” Kara, back in her usual Linda Lee Danvers getup in a simple blouse and jeans, looked up at her sister from her desk. Still feeling the pleasant effects of the earlier hours, she had quickly replaced her hand from between her legs and placed them on pages on a spread-out book on the desk, moments before Alex came in.

“Spill. I crafted enough excuses for the past 24hours that could fill a novel. Of course, with both mom and dad getting caught-up with their own work helped, but still…”

“Nothing happened. I had to… do a thing.” Despite being one of the most powerful superhumans on Earth, she still squirmed in her seat under the stare of one Alex Danvers. The elder Danvers sister kept that up until she finally sighed.

“Look, Linda. I know that you need to… go and help out. Even Dad came back and talked about how you saved his butt yesterday at that rally. But you’re really cutting it close, being WAY OVERDUE for dinner AND breakfast.”

“What did you tell them?” Linda asked, curious.

“I said that you went out for a bit with Kevin and your gang as usual, but will be home later that evening. Mom was livid that you would rather have dinner with someone else rather than with us during this holiday season, but then both of them were suddenly called back to the office for some reason. Dad’s usual, but for mom, this is a first… then of course, you slept in after coming back late.”

“Thanks Alex… I owe you one.”

“Save it. We’ve agreed to this, and thanks to you dad is still alive and kicking. But you need to let me know a bit more as well, so that I know?” That worrysome look is going to be something both sisters will need to get used to as the days went.

“It’s really no big deal, Alex. Superpowers remember? Else how would I have stopped those bullets that were fired at our dad?” That, and every part of her body. After all, her pussy had been able to deny penetration to the most powerful supercock on Earth until she added her own superstrength to Kal’s in order to get him deep enough to deflower her for the very first time. It still caused a gentle tingling all about her southern lips that are, for some reason, still slightly wet.

“I worry about you. That’s all. If you’re really out there helping all those people, then… well, I guess that’s alright. But there’s also a saying that you first have to get your house in order first before butting into other’s. So at least I can count on you to at least share whenever you can, deal?”

“Deal. You’re the best, Alex!” Alex then found herself being hugged by a powerful embrace, one that she thought would not be dissimilar to how a boa constrictor would encircle and squeeze their prey if she were one.

“Ooofff… . Hey hey hey. Normal human, remember? Go easy on me. Besides…” the moment Linda released her, she did a once over on her sister. “… you look… different? Like more muscular and busty kind of different…” An experimental cup and poke on the slight curve on her thick blouse confirmed it. “Firmer too. These clothes can only hide so much. What happened to you? And now that I think about it, your skirt is slightly shorter too.”

A blush came to her sister’s cheek. “I… well, I think I had a growth spurt these past few weeks.” That’s not entirely false either, though it wasn’t without a little ‘help’.

“Growth spurt huh? So you’re going to tower over all us very soon? That’s not going to help on your secret identity.” It was a good point, but Alex quickly continued upon seeing her sister’s frown. “But we’ll take things one at a time. There will be a time where you might need to spill. They deserve to know the truth.”

“Right… but I’m still harbouring the hope that it might not need to happen that soon…” Kal’s warnings still hung heavily within her mind, and not without reason.

“OK. And before I forget, did I mention that I got you a present?” This time Alex Danvers smiled when she saw her adopted sister literally lit-up at that casual remark.

<Elsewhere in Midvale>

The entire lab was deserted. Not surprising, given that it is the holiday season.

Dr. Emmett Vale liked that. He liked to work in peace and quiet. Middle-aged and never married, it was usual for him to put through the extra hours when everyone was away; coming in early and leaving late was already part of his regular repertoire.

Which was a little surprising when he stepped into the research area and turned on the light, the last person that he expected to see was sitting at his workstation, with her legs lifted and placed on the desk as she leaned back against the chair.

“Ms. Luthor. I… I didn’t expect to see you here today.”

“Neither did I. I was hoping to have a little vacation down in Acapulco this year, but something brought me back.” She didn’t even look up while speaking even as he slowly walked towards her. Her eyes were on the workstation.

It looked like she had been waiting for him for a while already, judging by the cups and glasses all about the table. Dr. Vale himself only drank from his own canteen, which he brings about to refill.

“Oh? Did something happened?” He walked slowly over, curious.

“You could say that. Something that came to my attention before I boarded the plane. So I had to cancel the trip in a huff and come back here instead, to check on something.” Despite her laidback stance, her emerald eyes never wavered from his gaze.

“Is there anything I can help with?” Emmett laid his bag on the side of the table as he spoke.

“Oh yes, you can sign on the dotted line here.” Lena sat back up, took a piece of paper lying on the side and passed it to him. When Vale took and read the contents, his eyes opened. Wide.

“I don’t understand.” He started perspiring slightly.

“You’re resigning from your post with immediate effect. Don’t worry, we’ll pay you until the end of the month. I'll even toss in the year's bonus for old time’s sake. After all, we’ve known each other since… well, since MIT no? Not that you will need those extra days anyway, seeing that you’re well compensated elsewhere.” He looked at her face, but could discern nothing. That Luthor poker face at work. His however was a mixture of concern and not a little frustrated.

“But… but why?”

“Come on Emmett. You know why. I’ll admit, that if it wasn’t a stroke of luck that I’ve returned to pick up something for Sam and SaraLynn that I found out about the simple security breach. That you were accessing something that you were not supposed to.” A simple statement, but her eyes were piercing like lasers. “Something that is NOT under your purview.”

Lena smiled when the researcher stayed mum, then looked down again, this time at her phone. “All this while, I’ve been trying to figure out why is it that Lex is allowing me to work on everything that I want. To be frank, the contracts have been a god-sent, and we’re actually doing well right now. Many of the research and inspirations that I had to making things better seems to be coming along as well. But then, something looks odd…”

Emmett Vale took a seat opposite his CEO. “Odd how?”

“Odd that I’ve been hearing about the army building a suit that consists of various mechanical parts that I’ve designed. We, LunarCorp, built. Which essentially, is not very far-fetched, given that everything we have, we have to share it with them…” she looked pointedly at Vale, who felt a bead of sweat flowing down from his forehead.

“Then I’ve heard rumours that they have cracked the code of making a full-blown suit, with a device that is placed somewhere on the chest area that can power every part of the suit. Something which is very unique. Something which has never been done beyond the lab. Something that is very similar to what we were researching as part of my next generation power source…” her gaze intensified as she left that last comment hanging in the air.

“They are the Army, Lena. All the resources in the country and then some, financially and people. I'm sure they would have thought about a similar solution for some time…”

“Yes… .that’s true. But the odd part is, THAT particular design came from LuthorCorp. A working prototype, supposedly that leverages on my own private design and research. Oh, Lex might have the best working for him with the government's money but in this case the best that he has lacks the imagination that I have. But yes, it might also be a coincidence. One can never be sure, unless there is evidence. Evidence of someone accessing that particular information within LunarCorp’s research archive and passing it along. And all these are in our secured research materials archive.”

“Lena. I’m one of your designated lead researcher. I have access to all the materials to aid in the development of my project…”

Leaning back, she smirked. “Oh, that I know. I also purposedly kept the folder unprotected within the archive, located under a few levels of folders. What I did do however was to put a small tracker as a backdoor keylog to track anyone who accesses it. Many of the researchers… well, they did read-up about it etc. But you… .” Leaning forward, her eyes were almost breathing fire…”you copied them, and sent them to a private email, which after pinging multiple locations, ending up in a mailbox belonging to one LuthorCorp. And it’s not one time. Each. And every. Version that updated in there. Was sent. ”

Silence. “No one is going to believe you, and if I take you to court…”

“Oh, do you want to see the videos too? I’ve set it up after I had my susipicions aroused for the first time three weeks ago. You were overconfident, sending all of them with the same workstation. Didn’t take me that long to set things up for us to see it live. I believe the last was… Friday?”

Another silence, before Emmett Vale took out a pen from his bag. After initialling on the termination notice he tossed it back to Lena before standing up.

“You don’t know what you’re dealing with. And you don’t know what you have lost.”

“At least I got rid of a traitor. Send my love to dear brother and mother. Now get out of my sight!”

After the middle-aged researcher left, another woman came in from the side door. Saralynn walked over and laid a hand on Lena’s shoulder.

“Is that wise?”

“We’ll see. In any case, it was a hunch played right.”

“I’ll bet. Videos tracking his every move? You’re good, but not THAT good.” That brought a smirk to the one Lena Luthor.

“Who cares. He took the bait; the fact that he signed that paper is proof enough. Now I think I’ll take up on Sam’s offer and just spend the rest of the week at her place. Toss enough money at her daughter’s way and annoy her just for fun. Maybe I’ll also start reading that recently self-published book of yours. Aliens and sci-fi is right up my alley.”

“Oh please. It’s just a personal hobby, nothing more.” Though Saralynn couldn’t help but beam with pride.

“Even so, you still plan to write more of it right? That sci-fi world of yours that you’ve written must really be intriguing enough for you to try to be the next Tolkien.”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

<Metropolis>

“Looks like Emmett was found out.” Lex wasn’t surprised with that latest information. He was just preparing to log off for the night when Dr. Hamilton called.

“That was expected. But we have everything that we needed?”

“More or less. Whatever the rest is left can be completed with time and resources. Another couple of months should do it for a prototype.” It was aggressive, but then again, both Lilian and Lex always believe in being the first to market.

“What does Hank think?”

“Very eager, like a child seeing candy for the first time. He wants to have a drive with the new item soon, and I had to remind him that we should test it on someone else first before hooking him up on this thing. No point in burning and crashing that soon. It IS expensive.”

“I agree. After all, it was his brillant idea of leveraging Emmett and getting him onboard with us, using a fake LuthorCorp account to liaise with him with so many enticers. Money IS a powerful motivator. Now that he has been terminated from LunarCorp, we have no use for him as well.”

“So we cut him loose?” Lilian was slightly surprised. Given that there aren’t that many experts in the this field she had hopes that he would be invited to join her lab.

“We have no formal agreements with him anyway, everything is only communicated and discussed on email, which is from a fake account untraceable back to us. He has nothing to sue for, and he can’t very well say that he is performing industrial espionage to the police. More importantly, I don’t want to do anything that confirms to Lena that we are doing this, do we?”

Putting down his glass of wine, he continued coolly. “Besides, if Emmett can betray his employer once, he can always betray another for the ‘right’ reasons. And I so hate people who are disloyal.” Thinking for awhile, he continued. “I assume Lena will now be even more indisposed?”

“That would be the logical assumption. But she does have Eliza Danvers there, and a few rising stars in the research community. But whether or not it continues on her research that remains to be seen.”

“Let’s see if we can entice a few more over to our side. Money after all, as you rightly put it, is a very good motivator.”

<Gotham>

“How was Christmas?”

“The same. Uneventful.” Which was true. After all, only Alfred and he are the permanents in the Wayne Manor; the person that normally lay beside him changes annually. He had woken up earlier to do some work at the desk when the call came.

“I’ll say. But I can sense that it’s a little different this year. Cat got your tongue?” Damn superhearing and supervision. And others, not the least the person who was lying in bed happened to be that one athletic woman that wore a catsuit while going about her business in the city while trying to walk that gray line between good and bad.

“Must be the wine. I have a good stash here.”

“I’ll bet. I’ve found out a bit of information about those alien races that our common friend talked about. I thought you might want to hear about it. You have ten minutes?”

Things ARE looking up for everyone this year.

<Someplace, whereabouts unknown>

While outside remained cold due to the weather, inside was a different matter. With the modern centralised heating available to masses, as long as one continues to pay the heating bills all will be fine. At least in most places where one can still afford.

And then there’s the activity that happens on the bed, which when it happens between two people, it can heat things up even more. Literally and figuratively.

In the partially lit room, a blonde young woman was literally having the time of her life, her slim body trashing and writhing repeatedly by the wonderful thrusts of her lover as she felt that his large manhood pounding into her. Penetrating deep into her as he moved his hips deliciously in and out in repeated motion. Again, again and again. The gentle yellow light that was purposedly put on cast their shadows against one of the walls

“Uggh..Uggh… Ugghh…” cried the young female voice, and the tone slowly moved higher and higher as the movements became more insistent, faster. The deep growls that came from the male partner only hightened her arousal. The result was inevitable for within minutes, the girl came with a shriek of finality with her male partner coming in close behind, as he emptied his jism into her womb.

As both of them came down from their high, the girl panted repeatedly as the man extricated himself from her. Despite the sexual coupling, the girl was still wearing her top; the very noticeable red and blues with an <S> insignia stretched gently across her medium-sized boobs. The rest of it was strewn messily towards the side and on the floor, together with her male partner’s clothes.

Smiling to herself for seemingly a job well done as she continued gulping for air, she heard the person slowly making his way to the toilet at the back, where the familiar sound of flip of the trash bin followed by the flushing of the toilet followed. Cupping herself through the lycra top, she thought the entire thing to be extremely kinky to the max, what with the request of doing it while still keeping herself partially clothed.

“Hey, I hope you’re still up for more. I still have time. And I do have the stamina to boot, being ‘super’ and all.” She chuckled, though her calling out to him seemed to have the desired effect. She heard the opening of the washroom door followed by footsteps heading back towards the bed; very soon the same face appeared the edge of the bed, looking expectedly at her.

Despite him seemingly mumbling about something, she was still looking forward to more action.

“So it was good for you too? I normally last for a while longer, and… URRGKKKK!!!” The girl’s eyes opened wide in alarm when the man suddenly reached out to and placed both of his hands over her throat. Those eyes never wavered even as she trashed violently, and tried to fight back even more than earlier as she fought for breath, her smaller hands trying to pry those larger ones open.

“Stt… St… ngg… ngg…”

It would be a lost cause. He held on firmly, her smaller body no contest against his, especially when it was such an unexpected attack. A small glow seemed to eminate from her body as well, from where his hands held onto her neck.

Half an hour later, a figure carrying a large black sack came out from the lowly place, left it next to the big trashbin along the back alleyway before walking out into the night, wiffs of smoke dissipating into the air as the person breathed hard.

The body would not be discovered for at least another 24 hours.

<Someplace else, a few days later>

“MmmpHHhh… Heerrlllo…”

“Dr. Emmett Vale. This is Amanda Waller. I see that you’ve gone for the tried and tested method when faced with disappointment in life.” That voice… Emmett Vale tried to pick himself up, but couldn’t help but groan into the speaker.

“What… who…?” His forehead throbbed from the aftermath. The empty bottles of whiskey lay just out of reach on the floor.

“As I said, I am Director Waller, and I lead a party that is very interested to secure your services. I heard about the disappointment in terms of arrangements with the Luthors. Unfortunate, but entirely predictable.”

“What the hell do you want for me?”

“More like what I can do for you. Given the people I work for, I am in the position of extending to you an offer that is very much befitting your capabilities. Think of it as an opportunity, if you will, with the full resources of the government behind you to enable you to finish what you started at LunarCorp. Besides, if things turns out the way that will eventually screw the two Luthor siblings in the process, wouldn’t that be icing on the cake for you?”

A moment of silence over the line, before a smile appeared on the Director’s mouth.