The intercom chimed in with the secretary's voice.
She was uncharacteristically nervous...

"Okuda-san..."

"Yes, Kuroda-kun?"

"You... ah... have some... visitors..."

"I told you that I don't want to be disturbed for the rest of the day."

"I know, but... they seem to be... very special visitors..."

Then his office door unceremoniously burst open.
In came two unsavory-looking men.
Yakuza.

One of the men began to speak: "I take it you know who we are. After all, we helped finance your election campaign, didn't we?"

He gave a slight smile. "Well, today is your lucky day! Our new Oyabun is willing to forgive you for not providing us with our proper... preferences lately...WHEN you do us a little favor..."

"But... your Oyabun refused all the... preferences..."

"That was THEN. This is NOW."

The politician gritted his teeth.

"Oh, not to worry. It's just a... 'night on the town', shall we say.

"And you won't be the only one, Okuda-san. Trust us..."

Dr. Light
Issue Four

"Kids Today..."
Part Two of Two
by Lamont Mallory

Kimiyo Hoshi created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez

"Do we REALLY have to be all the way up here for this?"

Yasu and Imako, both of them in costume, stood on the roof of their home. The Sun had completely disappeared in the distance, all but the last few rays of its light peering around trees, houses, and other buildings.

Imako shook her head at her brother's question. "NOW who's being 'stupid'? How else are we going to learn to fly?"

"But... but we can do that on the ground!" he nervously protested. "And what if Mom comes back and sees us doing this! What if we fall? What if--"

"Oh, quit whining!" she demanded, nudging the boy to the edge of the roof.

"Where's your sense of adventure?"

Yasu nervously peered out to the ground far below them, obscured quite a bit by tree branches. "I think I left it down there somewhere..." Then he eyed Imako and let the last bit slip through his lips: "...along with the last bit of your common sense..."

He immediately clapped his hands to his mouth. But it was too late.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!" Furious, the girl swiped at him.

Yasu tried to move... and slipped off the roof.
Imako grabbed his hand... as she also sailed off the roof.

Panicking, the two tried to summon their new power to their rescue.
They were plummeting towards the tree branches fast...
...but the light rallied around them faster.

Imako and Yasu, the space around their bodies shimmering with energy, soared away from the trees, and back up to the roof.

As they landed, the children sent the light away. But, completely unable to remain standing from the excitement, they collapsed to a sitting position.

Both of their hearts threatened to pound right out of their chests.
Both were shaking all over.

But only one would dare claim to be happy about the experience...

"That... that was SO COOL!" Imako squealed.

"ARE-- ARE YOU NUTS!" Yasu screamed at her, his voice squeaking and wavering despite himself. "THIS is the SECOND time YOU nearly got me KI--"

The girl clamped his mouth shut. "Keep it down before the whole neighborhood knows we're up here!" she hissed. "And would you stop over-reacting! I tried to catch you! And we flew, didn't we!

"Besides," she added with satisfaction, "if I hadn't tried to catch you, the branches would have broken your fall."

"And my NECK and my BODY!" Yasu huffed. "And I'm NOT 'over-reacting'!"

Now calm enough to stand again, Imako got up and grabbed her brother's hand.
She began to float off the roof with him in tow.

"Come on," she urged excitedly, "now we've got to figure out how to turn into light like Mom does!"

Yasu whimpered.

Dr. Light immediately recognized the man from the picture, as he descended the staircase.

Takano Sakai bore the typical shaven head of a monk. He carried a scabbard, with the hilt of a finely-made sword sheathed in it. Several old men accompanied him.

Captain Kisagi stood beside her with five of his men. Everyone bowed politely in greeting.

"It is a pleasure to meet with you, Captain, Dr. Light, officers," Sakai began. He gestured to his men. "These are my Kobuns, originally the Oyabuns of each of the clans. I believe you know them, Captain."

'All too well...' the officer thought to himself ruefully. But he nodded in acknowledgement.

Then he addressed the entire group. "As agreed, we will escort you to a neutral location, the Grand Hotel, to discuss our mutual problem."

The group fell into an informal procession. The Captain and two of his officers walked in front, followed by Dr. Light and Sakai, then his men, then the remaining three officers in the rear.

Aoki smiled at the thought of the gun he now possessed and concealed beneath his pant leg. No one, not even the so-called heroine, suspected that he had it.

Thanks to his men's loyalty, he now had leverage over the other Kobuns and even Sakai himself... but only as long as the bullets lasted. He would have to use the weapon carefully.

As the group walked, Dr. Light surreptitiously glanced at the monk out of the corner of her eye a few times. But her scientist's curiousity soon got the better of her, and she spoke to him:

"Sakai-san, if I may ask... Just how did a monk like you come to lead the Yakuza, anyway?"

Sakai unsheathed the sword. "It's all due to this sword, 'Slays the Dragon'. It allows the bearer to kill any Oyabun without repercussion. My father once owned it, while serving as the bodyguard of the famed Oyabun, Mitsuru Toyama.But he lost it in the Second World War.

"An American, along with a female archer, returned it to me at the monastery in which I served. But my brother Takizo, the Oyabun of the Black Dragon syndicate, sought it in a bid to bring together and control all the Yakuza families.

"All of the other monks in our monastery were murdered when he sent his men to retrieve this sword.

"After that, I had no choice but to bring the battle to Takizo.
We fought.
I killed him."

The procession reached the door to the building and began to file out into the night.

Sakai continued, "And now, to keep the Yakuza clans from degenerating into a civil war, I must lead the Yakuza... and live out my brother's mad dream.

"Still, I like to think I've turned this organization--"

Just then, the three caught sight of a few figures a few meters away.
Okamura.
And a large posse of men.

Dr. Light glowed bright and hot, her hair and cape flowing wildly in her anger.
Captain Kisagi and his men got ready to draw their guns. Sakai went into an attacking stance with his sword. The Kobuns flocked around their leader.

And Aoki almost went for the concealed weapon out of sheer instinct.
Almost...

"Hands up! Stay right where you are!" the Captain demanded.

The group raised their hands. But Okamura was smiling broadly. "Hey, I just came to talk!"

Dr. Light snorted emphatically. "You must be high on your own drugs if you think we'll believe that!"

"Go ahead and scan us with your powers, then. We're not packing."

Dr. Light's eyes made a full-spectrum scan of their entire bodies, including a magnified examination of the cell phones in their pockets.

"Doctor?" the Captain prompted.

Her brow furrowed deeper. "They're clean. That doesn't mean I trust this snake in the least."

"Agreed. We'll have to keep an eye out for tricks."

The group put their hands down. Okamura sneered. "Satisfied? I already told you that I just came to talk.

"For example, my dear Doctor, let's see if you're more than a nice pair of legs..."
The heroine scowled, as he continued: "Are you familiar with Kenichiro Okuda, Miko Kuragawa, and Toru Sawaguchi?"

A politician, an actress, and a popular singer.
"What of them?" she growled.

"Well, they were accompanying Yakuza members to... certain events tonight in different parts of the city. But I've just received word from some of my informants that these people have found themselves the targets of..." here he shrugged, "...let's call them 'terrorists'.

"They've arranged a coordinated attack on all three people that will occur in..." he checked his watch, "less than 10 minutes.

"You know, I'm not sure even my men can protect them from that kind of people, unarmed as they are. They might well be killed!"

All the policemen grimaced slightly.

Sakai protested, "But... the Yakuza have NEVER taken innocent people hostage before!"

"Who said anything about hostages? These important people gladly volunteered to accompany Yakuza members to these events. And even if they were hostages, I'd mark that down to desperate times, 'Oyabun'. We're in a battle for our livelihood here. And I've already broken one rule by defying you. What would one more do?

"That is, IF those people were hostages, which, of course," his grin widened, "they're NOT."

The monk immediately turned to the glowing heroine. "You have to go and save them."

But Dr. Light stood firm, not taking her flaring eyes off Okamura. "He's LYING! I'm NOT leaving!"

"'Lying', huh? If you say so. But then, can you risk it?" Okamura jumped in, smiling, "Would you like to be responsible for what happens to those people?

"Again, I certainly can't guarantee their safety..."

The monk spoke to the bright figure gently but insistently. "I am but one person. There are three of them. Not only am I armed with my sword, I trust the police and my men here to protect me. Please, go and help those people."

Captain Kisagi nodded in agreement. "Go ahead, Doctor. They're unarmed. We can handle things here."

Dr. Light still kept her stare trained on Okamura.

But she replied with one word...
"FINE."

She immediately flew off into the night, joining the stars in the sky.

"Good-bye, Doctor! Good-bye!" Okamura called with mock sweetness and a wave.

Then he turned back to the monk. "Now then, about OUR talk..."

"See? That was easy, wasn't it?"

Imako and Yasu were soaring above the Shinjuku section of Tokyo, in brightly-shimmering light form.

"Oh, sure, 'easy'," Yasu responded sarcastically. "Except for the tree you burned up, the street light I melted...

"Yeah, yeah, so we had a few bumps along the way..."

Yasu began counting on the fingers of his right hand. "...that telephone pole you torched, that building I singed..."

Imako snatched up that hand. "ENOUGH ALREADY! At least we got the hang of turning into light..." She squeezed the fingers angrily. "RIGHT?"

Yasu was still surprised that she could even grab him in light form. "AHHHH! Right! Right!"

"GOOD," she approved, relinquishing his hand. "Now, all we have to do is find some bad guy to stop!"

Yasu cradled his fingers and glared at his sister.

Meanwhile, Dr. Light scoured the city invisibly, for any clue as to her quarries' whereabouts.

'Three separate attacks...' she thought,'and I need to stop them all in less than 10 minutes! But I have to FIND them first!'

Then her mind sensed another pressing problem.

'Wait a minute...'

Her eyes immediately jumped to a pair of lights floating around several kilometers to her right.

'Just as I thought... two strangely moving lights! And they're too close to each other to be a plane or a helicopter! It couldn't be the other Dr. Light again... could it?

Her brown furrowed.

'I hate to leave those poor people in the lurch... but I have to make sure the city doesn't have a BIGGER problem on our hands!'

She immediately sailed towards the unknown lights.

Then a strange impulse struck Yasu's mind. "Hey... do you feel that?"

"What is it NOW!" growled Imako.

"It feels like... like a bunch of energy coming toward us!"

The girl scoffed. "Don't be ridic--"
Then the impulse hit her. "--OH! I feel it, too! Coming from behind us!"

Both children stopped to look.

Yasu frowned. "Whatever it is, it's invisible..."

Imako amassed energy in her hand. "Well, whatever it is, I'll just--"
Then that energy was immediately drained from her. "--HEY!"

Dr. Light took the energy as her own, then recognized the shimmering forms of her children.

"IMAKO! YASU!" she exclaimed, changing to her visible, glowing form to match them.

Caught in the act! Both children jumped a bit.
Imako managed a weak "Uh... hi, Mom..."

Their mother was momentarily stunned. "How... how did you--"
...but then her mind jump-started. "Of course! When the other Dr. Light hit the two of you with my blast!"

Imako decided to test the waters: "So... ummm... now that we have powers, we can help you, right? Right?"

Dr. Light quickly debated the matter with herself:

'I should just send them home.
'They're untrained! Any number of things could go wrong!
'Still... they could be useful.
'And they're certainly willing.
'They could make the job of rescuing those people much easier.

'And... well...'

She looked into each of her children's eager eyes, and smiled gently.

'...I love them!
'I want to trust them...'

Her decision was clear.

"Both of you, listen carefully..."

"...Remember: We now have less than 5 minutes! Lives are at stake, so stay on task! And if you get into trouble - ANY kind of trouble - send up a signal flare," Dr. Light instructed.

"Right!" the two children agreed, becoming invisible as they sped off.

Each of them spread out and searched a different area of Tokyo.

Imako soared around Shinjuku skyscrapers at light speed, lightly scanning people for gun metal with x-ray vision.

'Money... keys... cell phones... so where's the bad guys with the guns, already?' she thought to herself in increasing frustration.
'C'mon... c'mon... Where are you?'

Then she picked up what she was looking for.
'Found 'em! FINALLY! And--' she frowned a bit, '--they've got "Miko-chan" with them!'

A few hundred meters away, two Yakuza surrounded the actress Miko Kuragawa. The woman nervously struggled with her captors as they led her into an alley.

"Please... just... let me go!" she pleaded. "I'll pay DOUBLE what I owe! Just... please..."

"HEY!" the young heroine called, immediately swooping in front of them. "You're not going anywhere with her!"

Without a moment's hesitation, Imako made the first attack that came to mind: two big bursts of energy.

The Yakuza went for their weapons...
...but the power engulfed them before they could reach their pockets.
They barely evenhad time to scream.

The men were badly burned and unconscious.
The ground around them was blackened.
The guns were rapidly melting.

Miko-chan was sprawled on the ground, just out of the way, narrowly missing the fate of her tormentors.
Her eyes were wide with shock and fear.

Imako managed a sheepish grin and stroked her glowing hair. "Well... whatever works, right?"

Yasu took the Shibuya shopping district. But he was somewhat distracted as he scanned the crowds.

'Why does my power work differently from Imako's?' he mused, frowning. 'She could use x-rays, but I couldn't... And I have to use a magnetic scan instead... Weird...'

But then he detected what he was searching for: weapons on two men as they accompanied a third.

'All right! But... how am I going to do this?'

He hovered overhead to think, as the trio walked deep into the alley.

"Look, I'm telling you, I can get you the money I owe!" singer Toru Sawaguchi argued. "ALL of it! Just give me a little time, and--"

"SHUT UP!" one of the men interrupted. "Money ain't the issue now!"
Then he looked over at his friend. "Hey-- are we gonna do this guy, or what?"

The other man looked at his watch. "Okamura said to give him 10 minutes."

He grinned as he and his friend pulled their guns out of their pocket. "Your 'little time' is up!"

'UH-OH!' Yasu thought, his mind racing.
Then he settled on an idea.

The guns blasted, and the bullets soared towards their target... only to be stopped mere millimeters away by a pair of thin hard-light walls.

Then the white walls squashed the Yakuza against the brick walls of the surrounding buildings, knocking them out cold.

Their victim stood as still as a statue. His breath was shallow and ragged, as his life continued to flash before his eyes.

Yasu put his hand to his temple and heaved a sigh of relief. "Man... That was cutting it close..."

Dr. Light herself handled the Akasaka buisness district.

'Imako and Yasu haven't signalled for help yet...' she thought nervously, alternating every few seconds between checking the sky and scanning for guns.

'Is that a GOOD thing or a BAD thing?'

Then she strenghtened her resolve: 'STOP WORRYING. I made a choice to involve them, so I can't think like that NOW. I have to stay focused.

'They'll be alright. They HAVE to be.'

Then she discovered weapons on a pair of men below, with a third between them.
'And there's the Yakuza now!'

The two Yakuza were hustling politician Kenichiro Okuda into an alley.

"You can't do this!" Okuda insisted. "I'm an important man! You really don't think they'll miss a member of the DIET!"

One of the Yakuza raised a fist. "Hey, I don't CARE who the #$& you are, so if you don't shut--"

A cushion of hard-light interrupted their discussion, firmly carrying the victim out of the way and startling his tormentors.

"Surprised?" a female voice called from behind. "You shouldn't be!"

The Yakuza turned to see the shining Dr. Light, arms folded, looking down her nose at them. They drew their guns and aimed... but found the weapons melting in their grip.

The heroine smirked, her glowing eyes focused on heating the metal. "Drop the guns... or you'll wear them PERMANENTLY!"

They let loose the liquefying weapons as suggested.

"Good boys," she told them, nodding.

Then she zipped down and tapped them both on the head.
"Now... play dead!"

The men faded into unconsciousness and collapsed on the pavement.

The politician gathered his composure, then gratefully bowed his head. "Thank you so much for your help! There's no telling what would have happened if you weren't here!"

Dr. Light beamed with pride, and matched his bow. "I'm always happy to be of service."

Okamura pointed an accusing finger at the monk.

"Don't you get it? You're ignoring the Yakuza's past. Our history.

"We're NOT 'straight and narrow' types! We're NOT 'good guys'!

"We're going back to the way we were... the way we're SUPPOSED to be... TODAY."

The monk responded, "So, you're doing this just to preserve your heritage? And this isn't just a flimsy excuse to indulge in illegal and immoral activities for monetary and sexual gain? Or for power?"

Okamura grinned knowingly. "I like to call those 'fringe benefits'."

The monk thought for a moment. "And if I set you free, you'll stop all this?

The murders, the threatening of innocents?"

Okamura hadn't considered that as an option. "Hmmm..."

"Then GO," commanded the monk. "Do whatever you wish... on the grounds that you never, ever threaten innocent people again."

Sakai mused aloud: "A division between the Yakuza, like the way it was divided long ago, into tekiza and baguto, gamblers and peddlers.
"Acknowledgement of Yakuza history... Isn't that what you supposedly wanted?"

The young man shook his head. "I've thought about your offer. NO DEAL."

Then he smirked. "Obviously, you don't understand, old man. Having SOME of the Yakuza to control would be good...
"...but why settle for 'some' when I can have it ALL?"

Sakai eyed his adversary for a long moment.

"You have the same over-reaching audacity as my brother Takizo did," he concluded, advancing past his men and the police with sword poised. "And I believe you know what happened to him..."

"Yeah, old man, I took good notes," Okamura replied with a smile, not even flinching at the threat. "And you know what I figured out? Bring a GUN to a sword fight.

"But, if you can't bring a gun..." He looked across the street and whistled...

Suddenly, several windows in the buildings began to open, and armed men leaned out of them to take aim...

He turned back to the monk. "...bring FRIENDS with guns!"

Dr. Light rejoined her two children where they had first met,high above thestreets, each toting their captives.

"So, everything went well?" she asked.

Yasu nodded. "Uh-huh... more or less..."

"Ummm... mine got a little... uh... EXTRA crispy..." Imako began nervously...
... then she went for an upbeat note: "...but that's okay, right?"

Dr. Light hovered over to her daughter's captives and quickly checked their pulses. Imako watched from behind. "They're fine. They'll just be in the hospital for quite a while." Then she turned to her daughter with a reassuring smile. "And, to be honest, they deserve to suffer a bit for what they've been doing, anyway."

Imako grinned in relief. "Good."

"But I did BETTER," Yasu asserted with a smirk as he floated beside his sister.
"YOU probably came close to torching the person you were supposed to save!"

If Imako hadn't been in light form, her face would have turned beet-red with embarrassment. "SHUT UP, you little BRAT..." she warned, balling up her fists.

"I guessed right, didn't I?" the boy said, laughing and pointing triumphantly. "Some heroine YOU are!"

"Oh, THAT is IT!" the girl screamed.

Imako lunged at Yasu...
...and their mother immediately pulled their glowing bodies apart.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!"

She glared at her son. "You're BOTH new at this! And I'm sure you had at least SOME difficulty yourself, didn't you?"

The boy looked away in shame. "...yes..."

Imako snickered...
...until Dr. Light turned to her.

"DON'T laugh! YOU need to be more careful with your powers, especially when innocent people are concerned!"

The girl's eyes lowered. "...okay..."

Yasu changed the subject. "So... what was this all about, anyway?"

"The Yakuza," responded Dr. Light, looking off into the distance. "All this threatening of innocents to distract me, all the murders, all for an obsessive grab at power..."

She began to fly off with her captives. "Come on! It's time to END this!"

The police took aim at their new enemies.

Sakai's Kobuns surrounded him to lay down their lives.

The renegade Yakuza and the police fired.

The bullets all began to fly toward their targets...
...and then stopped in mid-air!

A familiar female voice rang through the area. "I told you that I wasn't going to leave!"

As everyone watched in surprise, the bullets collapsed to the ground... and the shining form of Dr. Light reappeared where she originally stood!

She flashed a proud smile. "Allow me, gentlemen!"

At the speed of light, she immediately flew into the sky, sending a bolt of lightning into each of the men in the buildings, knocking them unconscious.

"Dr. Light!" the Captain called. "But you were supposed to go save those people!"

The heroine floated down to him. "Actually, I did! And I even got some help!"

Just then, a trio of stars twinkled in the sky, and shot onto the scene, toting their captives. Three bright forms were visible: a teenage girl, a young boy...
...and Dr. Light!

"Am I late?" she joked knowingly.

Everyone was understandably surprised.

"WHOA!" Imako gasped, looking back and forth at the two versions of her mother.

Yasu nervously looked up at the Dr. Light next to him. "There are TWO of you!"

"Yes..." she replied, floating towards her twin.
"...and no," added the other one, matching that approach with her own.

The two Drs. Light immediately merged into one. "Advanced physics," she explained. "Photons of light can be in two places at once.

"It's very useful to know, when someone is trying to draw you away from where you need to be..." She smirked at Okamura. "...AND when you want to out-surprise someone."

The man gritted his teeth.

Imako's mind raced excitedly at the prospect of learning how to do that.
Yasu gazed admiringly at his mother. "Cool..."

Sakai addressed Okamura. "This changes nothing. I said you were free, and I still mean it. Take your remaining men and GO."

Okamura glared at him, then at the three glowing figures. "FINE."

Then he stepped up to the hovering Dr. Light, his eyes steely and his arms folded.

"You KNOW that this is only the beginning.
"We have money.
"We have connections.
"We have resources.
"We have manpower.
"We have HISTORY.
"You, you're just a temporary flicker in time. We were here before you were, and we'll be here LONG after you're gone.

"You don't DARE haul me off to jail.
"You WON'T kill me.
"You CAN'T stop us.

"And, best of all," he concluded, his Cheshire Cat grin returning, "you KNOW it's all true!"

The two stared each other down for a moment.

Then Dr. Light spoke:
"Now that you're done..."

Her eyes flashed for a brief instant.

"And what was THAT supposed to do?" Okamura asked.

"You'll find out soon enough," she answered smugly.

A plume of smoke rose from his face...
...as it began to crackle...
...and sizzle...
...and burn...

"AH! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" he screamed, fighting the urge to cradle his head as the pain overwhelmed him.

In horror, he turned to his men. Some of them audibly gasped at what they saw.

The woman had branded him, from hairline to both ears to chin, with a dark version of the star symbol she wore on her costume.

"Now..." Dr. Light began, raising his body off the ground with her power, "would you like to know what I have?

"I have power.
"I have science.
"I have knowledge.
"I have JUSTICE.
"And," she briefly glanced at each of her children, "I have allies as well."

Then she scowled at the man.

"And I most certainly WILL stop you.
"I have NO problem inflicting PAIN.
"Physical AND psychological.
"Chronic AND life-long.

"Step out of line again, and you'll have FAR more to regret than your new tattoo!"

Then she turned her attention to Okamura's allies a short distance away, and raised her voice for them to hear. "Does anyone ELSE have anything to say!"

She surveyed the audience. "SPEAK UP!"

The men were silent.
Furious, seething... but silent.

"GOOD. Then take your TRASH..." she hurled Okamura into them, knocking them all down... "...and GO HOME!"

Imako chuckled, as the men jumped to their feet, stumbling over each other.
Yasu stuck out his tongue at the retreating figures. "YEAH, LOSERS! GO HOME!" he called.

Dr. Light smirked in approval of her children's enjoyment, then stifled it so as not to encourage them too much.

"Come along, you two," she beckoned, beginning to float in the sky. Then she exchanged nods with the Captain. "I'll let you take it from here."

"You heard the lady," Captain Kisagi addressed his men. "Call for backup. Let Okamura and his pals go, but I want everyone who had a weapon taken into custody..."

Sakai and his Kobuns watched as Okamura and his allies disappeared into the city.
Aoki in particular stroked his chin in thought.
Okamura and his young splinter group's newfound freedom... There had to be a way to exploit it...

As the three began to fly home, Imako turned to Kimiyo.

"That part you said about having allies..." she prodded, her eyes eagerly searching her mom's. Yasu also observed intently. "Does that mean we can--"

"Need I remind you," Kimiyo interjected, "that this is the SECOND time you've tried to be heroes when I told you NOT TO? And I'm SURE you couldn't have swept the entire house so quickly."

The eagerness in Imako's eyes quickly waned...
Yasu averted his gaze sadly...

"I expect both of you to finish that job AND the additional punishment you're going to get as soon as possible..." she ordered...
...then her expression and voice softened, as she continued:
"if you want me to teach you how to use your powers properly, so you can assist me better!"

The children's faces lit up! They all but tackled her in their embrace!

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" her daughter cried out, overjoyed.
"Yeah, thanks, Mom!" added Yasu.

"Well, it IS the second time you were a great help, too!" Kimiyo told them, beaming proudly. "I'm confident that the two of you will make great heroes."

"But... there's something I don't understand," Yasu asked. "Why did we just let that Yakuza guy go? Shouldn't the police have arrested him?"

"Well," his mother began, frowning a bit, "as much as I hate to admit it, one thing he said to me was actually right:

"He's untouchable right now.

"If the monk had killed him, or if the police arrested him, the position of Oyabun would be up for grabs, and the bloodbath we were trying to prevent in the first place would begin. Allowing him to remain Oyabun stops the killing, which is good for us as well as the Yakuza. We also don't have to worry about an evenmore brutal or unreasonable man becoming Oyabun in his place.

"Our main enemy is... well... quite literally marked." She chuckled a bit. "It's a satisfactory compromise."

Imako put on a nervous grin. "Ummm... About satisfactory compromises..."

Her mother lifted a questioning eyebrow. "What did you do, Imako?"

"Well... I kinda... discovered my powers by blasting a hole in a wall back home..."

Yasu piped in. "...and there were... ummm... a few other things we kinda... broke..."

Kimiyo sighed in amusement.

"I see I'm going to have to train you two FAST, before there's nothing left to protect!"

The End

Next issue:
A stand-alone story about the beginning of Imako and Yasu's training... and an unexpected adversary!

Author's Notes

hellion writes:

"For some reason, I've always enjoyed reading about the more intelligent and harsher heroines and Dr. Light certainly fits that bill."

It's one of the main reasons why I like her:D

"The arc is off to a cool start, and it's nice to see her kids haven't been forgotten."

Well, they are important supporting cast. :)

And besides, I'm starting to love them as much as their mother does!

"Children these days, what are ya gonna do? Anyways, good story."

Thanks!

"The offer to join our growing fanfiction group is always open, btw. It's a good way to interact with other writers and is awesome for feedback. In addition, you'll have your fanfiction series posted at two well traveled sites. borntoxceed at yahoo is me email, so feel free to drop me a line ;)"

Okay!

The Uncanny R-Man writes:

"Bum-bum-bum! Dr Light Vs Dr Light! 'Nuff said!"

:D

"Man, Mimiyo is a badass. She even had time for a science lesson while she wa sbeating up the ba dguys. How cool is that?"

One of the main goals of this series is to return her in readers' minds to the strong stature she had during "Crisis on Infinite Earths", while keeping in mind that she's not quite as cruel as she was then.

"Can't wait and see what the Hoshi kids are up to as well."

There's plenty more of them where this came from! (grins evilly)

"Oh yeah! Kimiyo kicked Arthur's butt! Good job too. He really made a fatal mistake hwen he threatened her kids. I'm glad to see that somebody had the guts to do it."

One of the recurring themes of this series will be how protective Kimiyo is of her children. As seen at the end of this story, she is preparing them to be put in harm's way, but should harm actually come to them... well...

"Can't wait to see what happens now that Kimiyo has all but resigned from the League."

I should be picking up on that plot thread in the next few issues.

Mind you, I said "should"... :)

"Yet another wodnerful chapter. The Yakuza are up to something. They don't stand a chance. Heh."

But they're like Lex Luthor: Hard to get rid of, even if you're a SuperWOman!

"Now the Hoshi kids have powers, huh? I wonder how Kimiyo will react to that..."

See this issue! Is that service, or what:)

"Also, I'd like to thank you for reading 'Uncanny Superbuddies' which I co-write with L1701E. You will also be pleased to hear that Kimiyo will be making an appearance too."

Great! I really have to catch up with my reading, then!

Icha writes:

"This is cool! Glad to see Kimiyo returned. It's so fun to 'play' with Japanese stories these days, now that we have internet! And it's such a coincidence that we both use monks within Yakuza stories (well, mine in the Black Snow is a former-Yakuza monk, and yours is a former-monk Yakuza - LOL!)."

Check out the addendum below about where I got my monk!

"I emailed you about Katana/Tatsu Yamashiro. Did you get my message? Thanks!"

Received and answered. I'm always happy to help!

Addendum:

Some of what I've written is based on continuity from various DC books. So, in the interest of letting you know what elements of this series come from where:

The first meeting of Arthur and Kimiyo was in Suicide Squad # 52. The issue is recommended (but certainly not required) reading, as this series will take quite a few cues from that issue regarding the Dr. Light legacy. All 3 Drs. Light appear in it, including Jacob!

Kimiyo's childhood friend Tetsuo also comes from a throwaway line in Suicide Squad # 52. As mentioned last issue, it was a lost bet with Tetsuo that indirectly engineered Kimiyo's run-in with Arthur. ("I must remember never to make a bet with Tetsuo again." Words to live by!)

This issue's story of Takano Sakai, the monk who would be Oyabun, comes straight from the Shado miniseries. As for Shado (the "female archer" mentioned by Sakai in this story) herself... well, that would be telling! I have plans, so stay tuned... ;)

Oh, and for the record:
Dr. Light and all related characters (the ones not created by me, anyway) are owned by DC Comics, a division of Warner Bros., an AOL-Time Warner Entertainment Co. I make no claim to owning them.

Keep watching the Stars!