It was just before nine AM when the pair of Metropolis reporters came to Miranda Miller's shop on Union. The gilt sign on the door proclaimed the shop to be 'Scents by Miranda.' Bells on the door handle chimed as the door opened and Lois and Clark walked in. The shop was in a standard glass and brick store-front, walls lined with glass display cabinets filled with antique perfume bottles and atomizers. Other displays showed off incense, soaps, candles, and oils. Behind the sales register, set against the back wall, was a stainless steel table with a microscope, several glass vials with stoppers and a box filled with ornate blue perfume bottles nestled in shredded paper. Above the table was a wall-mounted cabinet a lock on it. A curtain covered what appeared to be the door to the back room.
Lois and Clark looked around the shop for a few minutes, waiting for the proprietor to appear. The front door had been unlocked, even though the shop was scheduled to open in an hour. Finally a woman appeared through the curtain. She was blue-eyed with swept back blonde hair. It was hard to tell her age – she was slender and her face was flawlessly made up, almost like a Barbie doll. She wore a full skirt and a gypsy blouse with gold necklaces and large gold hoop earrings.
The woman smiled broadly at them, teeth even and white. "Looking for something in particular?" she asked.
"Uh, no. Not really," Lois responded. Behind her, Clark was looking at the bath oils and soaps, reading the ingredient labels, smelling the scents. He looked around the building, using x-ray vision to check out the backroom and basement for anything unusual. The backroom was being used for storage. The basement had an ornate stainless steel and copper still. Clark guessed it was for distilling the ingredients Miller used in her business.
"A gift? Something for a friend whose love has soured?" the woman was asking Lois. She went to one of the locked cabinets and opened it with a key from her skirt pocket. "Try my Jungle Passion. Pure white petals, picked from a flower grown only in Micronesia." She took one of the ornate perfume bottles from the case and showed it to Lois. "I have a wide selection. A scent for every occasion."
Clark stepped over to the cardboard box and, using super speed slipped one of the bottles into his jacket pocket.
"You make all the perfumes?" Clark asked.
"Yes, of course. I was trained as a chemist," she said. "Many perfumers are. In fact the goal of a fine perfumer is to cause a 'chemical reaction,'" She gave him a puzzled look, drawing her eyebrows together, the wrinkles marring the almost unnatural smoothness of her forehead. "Have we met before?"
"No, I don't think so. I'm Clark Kent. This is Lois Lane, from the Daily Planet," Clark told her. "We have an appointment to interview Doctor Miller on her new line of scents, Revenge?"
"Oh, yes. I'd quite forgotten you were coming," she told him, coyly batting her eyelashes at him. "I've been so busy getting ready for the unveiling tonight. So many details to worry about."
"I'm sure it must be very stressful for you," Lois said, sympathy in her voice. "Especially with the FDA looking into your ingredients list."
Doctor Miller's expression shifted from coy helpfulness to something far darker. "The Food and Drug Administration has nothing on me. The fact is that my competitors feel threatened by my success and my clients believe my scents are helpful in their love lives. That doesn't mean I'm breaking the law or endangering my clients by adding untested ingredients to any of my products."
"You mean you do animal testing on your products?" Clark asked, eyebrows pulled together in a frown.
She arched one perfectly formed eyebrow at him, eyes wide in apparent innocence. "I don't need to. I only use pure and natural ingredients in my products, ingredients that have already been certified safe. It's the proportions, the preparation, and the combinations that make my perfumes so powerful and provocative."
She put the bottle of 'Jungle Passion' back in the case then went to the cardboard box and removed one of the cobalt blue bottles. She pulled off the stopper and daubed a drop on the inside of her wrist before holding her wrist out for Clark to smell. He took a quick sniff and straightened up, backing away a step. She gave him a wide-eyed look of surprise.
"Interesting odor. Animal based?" he asked, blinking his eyes. The scent was making him tear, something he hadn't thought possible.
"You have a remarkable olfactory sense, Mr. Kent," she said. "Yes, this particular perfume promises to become a best seller." She put the stopper back on the bottle and placed it back in the box.
Lois was watching Clark worriedly. "Can you tell us the ingredients?"
"Come now, Ms. Lane. Surely you don't expect me to give away all my secrets?" Doctor Miller chided with a smile. "Now, if you don't mind, I have a debut to finish preparing for."
She ushered them to the door then with a flourish, locked the door behind them.
"She's lying," Lois announced as they headed down the street away from Miranda's shop.
"I know. Her pulse rate was over one-fifty, and I could smell the fear," Clark told her. "At least I could until she put on that whatever it was."
She stopped and stepped in front of him. "It really did affect you?"
He nodded, reaching a finger under his glasses to rub one eye.
Lois grabbed his hand. "You'll just make it worse," she warned. He blinked several times and finally his eyes started to clear. "That stuff must have been seriously potent if it did that to you. Did you feel anything else?"
"My nose is a little stuffy," he reported, sniffing experimentally. "And it knocked out my sense of smell."
"You're joking. You don't think those bottles are what she's planning to show tonight, do you?"
He shook his head. "I hope not. I think I'm allergic to it."
"So, we know she's up to something, but what?" Lois asked. Clark grinned at her and pulled the small blue bottle out of his pocket just far enough for her to see.
"I was thinking visiting Doctor Faulkner and seeing what her people have to say about this," Clark said. His eyes were still watering a little, but not nearly as badly as before.
"The D.A. doesn't want Superman, Lois Lane, or Clark Kent in Metropolis, member?"
"But nobody said anything about Kal Ellis and Laura Landers," Clark remarked.
A bemused Lois Lane shook her head at her companion – a tall, well-built man with black hair wearing aviator sunglasses, a biker jacket and worn jeans. Worn leather biker boots and a black t-shirt completed the ensemble. Frankly, she hadn't imagined he'd be able to pull it off.
Her own costume was similar – jeans and biker boots, a black cotton halter top and leather jacket with lots of chains. A blousy blonde wig and heavy makeup topped it off.
"I can't believe we're doing this," she murmured as Clark simply walked past the security guard standing at the entrance to STAR Labs Metropolis, flashing an ID card as he went, Lois close by his side.
Inside, 'Kal' went through the security protocols and they gained entry to the first, outer levels of the lab as Doctor Kitty Faulkner walked up to them. Her eyebrows threatened to reach her hairline as she looked them over.
"Do you often go out in public dressed like that?" she asked with a chuckle.
"Occasionally," Clark admitted. "Not often." He pulled the small perfume bottle from his pocket and showed it to her.
"Is this what Superman wants analyzed?"
"If you would please," he confirmed. "And just to let you know, Superman was exposed to it and had an allergic reaction."
"An allergic reaction?" Kitty repeated with a frown.
Lois nodded. "Just like the ads, watery itchy eyes, stuffy nose, loss of sense of smell. The symptoms lasted nearly an hour."
"I'll put a rush on the analysis," she promised. "You have your cell phone with you?"
"Of course," Clark told her.
"I'll give you a ring when we're done."
Lois and Clark sat in the coffee shop across the street from the lab and waited.
"It's been a while since I've done undercover work," Lois admitted. "It's hard when you have a kid at home."
"I don't figure Perry or Richard would have stood by while you did something like that anyway," Clark told her.
"You're right," Lois admitted. She sighed deeply. "I miss him, you know. I still wake up expecting he'll be there."
"Lois, it takes time to get through the death of a spouse," Clark told her, studying the steam as it came off his coffee. "And whether or not you got sanctioned by church and state, Richard was your husband in every way that mattered. That's not something you just get over."
"I wish Perry would realize that," Lois commented.
"I think he's just trying to get you, and me, to realize that it's time for you to start living for you."
"By booking us into a room with a single bed?"
He chuckled. "It's not the first time he's done that to us."
"Last time we were supposed to be newlyweds," she reminded him. "He doesn't have that as an excuse this time."
Clark's phone buzzed and he answered it. He listened for a moment then closed his phone and put it back in his jacket pocket. "The initial analysis is finished."
Doctor Friedman was a tall man, almost as tall as Clark, but thin almost to the point of emaciation. He looked up at Doctor Faulkner's guests in surprise as they walked into his lab.
"Um, I have finished the initial analysis and the results are very interesting," he said. "It's basically a perfume. The organic compounds appear to have been extracted using various common means, alcohol, steam extraction, oil and are dissolved in a grain alcohol base. The uncommon ingredients I'm having a gas spectrometer and an electrophoresis analysis done. It substance also contains trace amounts of kryptonite."
"Well, now we know why Superman was affected," Lois commented.
"Any speculation on what the 'uncommon' ingredients are?" Clark asked.
"As a scientist I prefer not to speculate," Friedman told them. "However, I suspect it's a form of human sexual pheromone. I'm having one of my colleagues with an interest in endocrinology help with the analysis. We'll know more when he's finished, but I can say right now that the compound has been chemically modified."
"Doctor Friedman, are you familiar with Doctor Miranda Miller's research into human pheromones?" Lois asked.
"Doctor Faulkner gave me copies of Miller's research notes, at least the ones STAR Labs has," Friedman said. "At first analysis, the compounds do conform to her stated experimental concepts. If I am correct, then I would expect the effects of exposure would wear off in twenty-four to forty-eight hours, depending on the individual's metabolic rate. The overall effect would be to over-ride the individual's normal intellectual defense mechanisms, leaving it difficult for them to control their sexual urges. That is assuming there was already a sexual attraction between the exposed individuals."
"And if the pheromones have been modified?" asked Clark, his eyes dark with worry.
"I can't predict the results of the modified chemical," Friedman admitted. "It could render the effects permanent. It could render the urges impossible to control. It could render the compound inert. As I said, I'll know more once Doctor Jones finishes his analysis."
"Aside from the kryptonite, was there anything else in the perfume that would explain Superman having what appeared to be a histaminic reaction to it?" Kitty asked.
"I'm not familiar with Superman's physiology, but I would hazard a guess that he wouldn't react to human sexual pheromones, at least nowhere near on the level of a human male."
"So, instead of becoming aroused, his eyes start watering?" Lois asked.
Friedman nodded. "It could be that Kryptonian sexual pheromones are quite different chemically than human ones and so his body rejected them, or the modifications may have turned them into allergens for him," Friedman explained.
"And when will Doctor Jones be finished with his analysis?" Kitty asked.
"Probably later this afternoon."
Kitty turned to 'Kal' and 'Laura.' "I'll call you when Jones is done."
"We'll be waiting," Clark promised.
"So, do human pheromones work on you?" Lois wondered aloud as they set down in the wooded area behind the inn in Napa and walked inside.
"I'm not sure. I can smell them, I know that," Clark told her. "I didn't smell anything like that in that perfume she waved under my nose. And I certainly wasn't aroused."
"So, what do you think she's up to?" Lois asked.
"Good question," Clark replied. "One thing Perry didn't include in the research he sent with us was her finances. As successful as her perfume business is, I doubt it's up to financing biochemical research at the level the STAR Labs was. I didn't see a lab of that nature in the basement of her shop, either."
"Let's see if research can come up with anything more on her," Lois suggested, picking up her own phone and calling the Daily Planet.
Clark opened the door to their room and Lois noticed that he looked tired. He'd spent the afternoon as Superman, looking for the lab they both suspected Miranda Miller had somewhere in the Napa Valley. Lois had concentrated on the financial reports the Daily Planet had emailed her.
Although Miller's perfumes were generally well received, financially they were not nearly the successes of such brands as Chanel or Givenchy. Miller was making enough to live comfortably, but there was no where near enough income to support the facilities she needed to do what they suspected her of. There were hints that she was getting funding to continue her research, but there was nothing concrete as to who it might be.
"Find anything?" Lois asked.
"Nothing," Clark told her. "Or I should say, there are too many possibilities. Nearly every winery in the valley has a testing lab that has much of the same equipment that she'd need to do her work. But I didn't spot her either."
"Well, she'll be at the debut tonight, so hopefully we can catch up with her there," Lois said, calmly looking at her reflection in the mirror as she finished applying her makeup. "And if I understand Jones's report correctly, Miller's modification to the pheromone may have made its effects a little stronger, but the effects shouldn't last nearly as long."
Clark skimmed through the report on the screen of Lois's laptop. "But he doesn't say how much stronger it might be, or what effect dosage might have."
"I think that's on the last page," she said. "Something about not being able to make predictions without knowing the behavioral results of exposure to humans."
"That's not real helpful," Clark commented.
"Clark, the FDA is already investigating her, so I doubt she'll be pulling anything at the debut," Lois said thoughtfully, putting on her earrings. "I mean, it would be stupid to try anything when everything would point straight at her."
"You're probably right," Clark agreed, but Lois had been around him long enough to know he wasn't convinced. "But I have to wonder why she added kryptonite to her formulation. She can't know enough about Superman's physiology to expect him to succumb to the effects of the pheromones and she has to know there isn't enough kryptonite there to poison him."
"Unless the kryptonite is there because she knows it can affect humans?" Lois suggested.
"Or, she has enough of the stuff stashed somewhere that there is enough kryptonite to affect Superman," Clark suggested in return.
"In which case, we have to ask where the kryptonite came from," Lois pointed out. "It's not exactly common and between STAR Labs and the U.S. military, there isn't a lot of it around for civilians to get hold of."
"A fact that I know Superman greatly appreciates." He watched her as she shook out the burgundy dress she'd chosen to wear to dinner and the fashion show that was to herald the debut of 'Revenge.'
"You'd better get ready or we'll be late," she warned.
While dinner was excellent, it was the fashion show Lois and Clark were both waiting for. And the appearance of Doctor Miranda Miller.
The gallery area of the art center had been transformed into a fashion show complete with a runway. Tall models moved in and out of the crowd, showing off the latest in summer fashions. There were photographers everywhere, snapping pictures, ducking around the guests with their wine glasses. Lois and Clark found themselves with several other people on the mezzanine, looking down on the spectacle. A waiter came by with wine and petit fours.
"I don't see sign of her," Lois observed, watching the scene below. She shook her head in disgust. "The beautiful people."
Clark glanced at her without comment, sipping his wine.
"It's such a sad comment on society," she continued. "Dress a certain way, smell a certain way, and the world will love you."
"Most people aren't quite that shallow, Lois," Clark reminded her.
"Really, Clark?" she asked without taking her attention off searching for her quarry. "Do you honestly think anyone down there gives a damn if their high fashion clothes are made by slave labor or the ingredients in the perfume endangers rare species, or themselves?"
"Lois, we're in California not Metropolis, remember?" Clark reminded her gently. "Besides, I see Miller down there."
He nodded to the runway and she saw the blonde woman from the shop dressed in royal blue chiffon trimmed in gold. Miller seemed to float down the runway, stopping at the end. She had a cordless microphone in her hand.
"Ladies and gentlemen," she announced. "Thank you for coming to Miranda's first annual summer fashion spree and the unveiling of my newest fragrance. They say living well is the best revenge and so I present 'Revenge.'"
The models in their swimsuits and cover-ups held cobalt blue atomizer bottles and started spraying the audience, walking through the crowd smiling at the photographers. But the reaction to the perfume wasn't the expected one. Most of the guests frowned at the odor, waving it away from their faces. Several of the sprayed guests looked surprised, and a few actually looked angry, although they should have realized that by attending a perfume showing meant they were likely to end up smelling of the scent being debuted.
"Interesting scent," one of the men standing beside Clark commented. Lois gave in a curious look and he smiled at her. "I don't believe we've been introduced. I'm Nigel Smith. And you must be Lois Lane and Clark Kent."
"Have we met?" Clark asked.
"Oh no," Smith said. "But I am a fan. I was following your series in the Daily Planet on the fall of William Church and his empire with great interest. I was surprised to see your names on Miranda's guest list."
"We go where the story is," Lois explained. "Are you a friend of Miranda's?
"A business associate of sorts," he told her. "My company is always on the lookout for new products and markets for investment."
"And your company…?" Lois asked.
"Lois," Clark murmured to get her attention. He was staring at the crowd below. Miranda had vanished as had the models, but the remaining crowd was behaving oddly. Many of the guests had started removing their clothes. A few of the women had started to move away from the group, heading further into the gallery. Several men followed them and the women started running.
Lois grabbed Clark's hand. He gave her a quick nod of understanding. "You call the cops," he instructed. "I'll see if there's something I can do." With that he ran to the stairwell at the end of the mezzanine and disappeared. Lois grabbed her cell phone and keyed in 9-1-1. A man's hand reached out and took her phone, folding it up.
"We don't need the police here quite yet," Smith told her.
"It's turning into a riot down there," Lois protested. "Somebody has to do something."
As she spoke, she heard the distinctive whoosh that was so familiar to citizens of Metropolis – Superman had arrived.
But Lois noticed he looked bewildered after trying to break up several of the fights that had broken out on the floor. Both the men who were fighting and the women watching them were shooing him off, even though the combatants were already bloody. It was as if the blood was getting them aroused. Their pupils were dilated, hearts pounding, breathe ragged. He stepped back then turned to go after the men who had followed the fleeing women.
Several of the women grabbed his cape, threatening to tear it off his back then they started fighting among themselves. He disappeared, only to come back within minutes, shaking his head in frustration. Lois watched him wipe tears from his eyes – she realized he must have gotten sprayed again.
Lois heard the faint hiss of an atomizer, the touch of cool vapor on her face and looked over to see Smith holding one of the cobalt blue bottles in his hands. She smelled a stench that reminded her of a men's locker room and felt her face and neck grow warm.
"And what would you like to do now, Ms. Lane?" Smith asked with a smarmy grin on his thin face. He laid his hand on her arm and she shook it off with a glare.
"Nothing you'd be interested in," she told him pointedly holding out her hand. "My cell phone. Now."
Speechless, he handed over her phone and she pressed 9-1-1. She looked up again and he had vanished down the stairs. No matter. She reported the 'orgy' to the local cop shop then leaned over the balcony rail to watch Superman.
"The cops are on their way," she murmured. "Let's get out of here."
She saw him look up at her then back at the people around him. It had devolved into a full blown orgy, half-naked bodies writhing together. They ignored the blood, the bruises, even the broken bones.
With a shake of his head, Superman flew up to where Lois stood. Smith had already disappeared. Superman picked her up and flew off, heading in the direction of where they were staying.
"Are you okay?" she asked after they were away from the gallery.
"I could only get one woman away from them and she was hurt bad," he said softly. "The other two women wouldn't leave, wouldn't let me get them away even though they were bleeding. It was like they didn't understand or they didn't care."
"I care," Lois murmured, her voice husky. They landed in their room and Superman set Lois in one of the wing chairs. She grabbed his hand to keep him from leaving. "You don't have to go."
"Lois, are you okay?"
She could see the worry in his face and she ran her fingers down his cheek to his mouth. "I'm fine. I just don't want you to leave me."
"Lois, I have to," he said. "I have to let the police and the medical people know what's going on, what happened." He looked into her face and she felt her stomach go wobbly inside.
"Promise you'll be right back?" She lay back in the chair, a dreamy smile on her face as she watched him.
"I promise I'll be back as soon as I can." He went over and threw the deadbolt on the door. "Don't open the door for anyone, okay? Promise me?"
"Of course I won't open the door. But come back quick."
He took off through the window, but not before she made sure he saw her raise her skirt, put her hand on her thigh above her stockings and smile at him.