"Just like old times, eh, Doll?" Dan Dare asked his partner, Carol Clews. "One minute, we're in Arizona wrapping up a case with Jack Weston, and then, WHAM! Out of nowhere, a Western Union guy tracks us down and drops a telegram with a job offer in our laps!"

"Yeah, back before our nap, seemed like that's all we ever did, boss… hop from one exotic location to another, solve wild crimes, and collect outrageous rewards. Never time for a real life, or a date, or even shopping…" Carol Clews smiled at the memories. "At least these days, I don't have to put up with your piloting!" She punctuated her remark with a snorted laugh.

"At least those days, we had a damned plane!" he barked back. "How do I know your 'Solid Sunlight®' stuff won't just turn back to rays when we're two miles up?"

"Guess that's why you still wear a parachute, huh?" she joked. Then she turned serious. "Seriously, Dan, doesn't this job strike you as a little bit strange?" Beautiful, blonde Carol Clews, the not-so-silent partner and secret weapon of the Dan Dare Detective Agency, challenged her companion. "Lawrence Library, a guy who's allegedly a billionaire but almost nobody's ever heard of before, pays a detective agency that has solved exactly one case in over 30 years a king's ransom to have a pair of private dicks stand guard over… what, exactly? He's meeting with some other unknown guy, this Doctor Quentin, to pay a million dollars for a bottle of soda pop? And what's he want, that we make sure nobody drinks the stuff?"

Dark-haired handsome Dan Dare replied casually. "Not just a soft drink, sweetheart. It's the last remaining bottle of the legendary Kooba Kola! Unopened, in storage for the past 40 years. You remember the story, don't you?" Carol shook her head. "Some funnybook publisher made up the stuff, and then hired some actors to pretend to be the Marvel Family, and they claimed they drank the stuff to make them marvelous. Then he set up a bottling company, and sold a couple hundred cases of carbonated lemonade for a hundred bucks a bottle. And then, the guy disappeared…"

"Leaving behind a lot of pissed off customers… and a pissed off Marvel family. I kind of remember it now - they never found the guy, did they? And this Doc Quentin guy just happens to have the last unopened bottle? Sounds fishy to me, boss!"

"Well, Quentin claims he found the bottle in his parent's basement after they died. He's too young to be the publisher from the 40s, but nobody knows anything about him. So maybe…" He pulled a pad from his pocket, made a note. "Let's find out more about Quentin later. Anyway, it's popularly believed that this Lawrence Library guy has the biggest, most complete Captain Marvel memorabilia collection on Earth, and it's appraised at well over 5 million bucks. This guy has things nobody else has, a portrait of Cap by Clarence Beck, the famous artist, a complete run of all those 'real life adventure' Captain Marvel comic books published during the war, an unpublished autobiography, supposedly written by the Big Red Cheese himself... So why not pay a mil for the last bottle of… Kooba Kola?" He winked at her. "He's afraid somebody might steal it, hence, he hired us…"

Then he leaned forward, and his voice dropped to a whisper. 'Yeah, there's something fishy going on, doll. You don't hire a pair of nobodies just back from a 30 year nap to guard your most valuable possession! So stay awake, sweetheart - and be ready to show off your sunny side!"

Carol's 'sunny side' was their secret weapon - for Carol was in fact the rookie superheroine Sunbeam, with the power of creating, shaping and controlling a mysterious form of glowing, yellow energy - a power she'd developed after breathing a strange mixture of subterranean gasses not long after being released from a 30+ year imprisonment in a magical time suspension spell.

Dan kept talking. "I've made some contacts to try and find out more about Library and Quentin, but I'm having to start all over again - all the informants I used to use are dead or retired by now - mostly dead, actually, and mostly they didn't die peacefully! Meanwhile, we'll just have to keep on our toes, use our noggins, and hope we got enough on the ball to keep up with whatever is going on around here!"

He patted the piece in his pocket and cracked his knuckles to emphasize his words. Carol winced - back in the day, she'd been impressed and infatuated with his macho mannerisms. Having super powers, saving the world, and hanging around with a bunch of modern women, many of them with super powers of their own, had significantly altered her world view. Dan would get it, she was sure - he'd always been a good guy, and a lot more than just another Don Juan with a gun and a PI certificate. Meanwhile, it was good to know that he, too, was suspicious of this assignment - and they WERE being well paid to make sure nothing interfered with this secret exchange.

'Getting paid more for 4 hours of boring babysitting than we ever made in any month before!' she thought. 'Times sure have changed, haven't they? Why, even the two-bit lipstick I used to buy is around 4 bucks these days!'

"Tell you what, boss - helluva place for a secret meeting!" She looked around - they were sitting at a picnic table, surrounded by the remains of their breakfast, in an almost empty public park. Not too far away, there was an outdoor basketball court, and apparently on Saturday mornings, it was used exclusively by a league for teenage girls. Carol had been watching with intent interest - she'd been something of a basketball star herself, in her high school days, but the game she played had been nothing like this! When she'd played, it had been 6 on 6, and nobody could cross the center line. 3 girls played exclusively on the offensive end of the court, while the other three played on the defensive end. Carol had an extremely accurate set shot and had averaged 15 points per game in a time when most teams only averaged 15 ppg, but she'd never played defense (or had any desire to, for that matter).

Still… 'Yet another difference, like the prices. I wonder if I could find a league of women my own age and see if I've still got it?'

"Well, with all the comings and goings it won't look strange when Library just happens to bump into Quentin. And we'll see anyone who tries to interrupt them." Not far away, another couple sat at another picnic table, still working on coffee and donuts. "Nice to see that Quentin's security is here as well." He noticed that the woman at the other table was watching them, nodded at her, and she nodded back.

Carol saw something relevant and alerted her partner, pointing her chin toward the nearest parking lot. "Here comes Library now. Time to earn our outrageous fee!"

***~~~***

Dinah Malone unconsciously adjusted her mask, for perhaps the 17th time in the last minute or so. She hadn't worn a mask as Dynamoll of the villainous, all female Rainbow Squad, but she was starting a new life, and a whole new criminal identity. 'Here's where I start making a name for myself - for Oya, the Orisha of Energy!' Dinah was a tall, thin black woman with a 'fro that doubled the size of her head. She'd decided that the African Oshira ('spirit' or 'goddess was a close approximation of the term) Oya best suited her own powers. Her costume, like that of her previous ID, was mostly burgundy. However, unlike that last fashion disaster which had probably been designed by an alien worm, the new costume was designed by a woman: sleek and sexy, a tight, dark burgundy catsuit of shiny vinyl, with bright burnished-copper colored trim, cut down to her navel in front and back and laced together with shiny coppery cords, topped with a burgundy Zorro-style mask. Her hands were bare and her burgundy flop-top boots had low heels and laced to her knees, again with coppery cords.

'Sybil made it sound easy,' she thought. 'Swipe a bottle of fizzy pop from an old guy and I'm in! And if I can get the million bucks from the other guy, I get to keep it!'

Dinah was suspicious - she'd worked at the DMV for years before the alien Handyman had recruited her and her fellow clerks to become the super powered Rainbow Squad, and she knew that even something as simple as paying a registration fee could lead to literally hours of ridiculous complications. Robbing a couple of rich guys who were almost certain to have brought their own security, who knew? 'Wonder why her new boss wants the fizzy pop anyway? Not really my worry, though.. Just get in, swipe the pop, and get out! And take a big step up.'

She had parked her 'flying scooter' (supplied by Sybil) on the roof of a four story office building and was watching the nearby park through binoculars. From photos, she recognized Library when he stepped from his car in a parking lot, and not long after, she saw Doc Quentin exit his own car in a different lot. The two men entered the park and headed for the same table in the picnic area. Each put a bag from a local fast food restaurant on the table, and as they were sitting down, they managed to unobtrusively switch the bags.

While they had been approaching the table, Oya launched her scooter into the sky, and before either man could open his bag for breakfast, they were stunned by a roaring, whistling sound, quickly growing louder. Oya launched a bolt of lightning ahead of her, which struck the table and threw the two men backwards. This wasn't quite as successful as she had hoped, however, as the bags were also thrown away from the table. She'd been hoping to swoop in and swoop out; now she was going to have to scrabble around for the bags. But who would try to stop her after seeing her lightning power?

***~~~***

Two couples leaped into action from nearby tables, racing towards their respective employers, meanwhile yelling at everyone else nearby to run! Almost everyone was running already; those that weren't were galvanized by the shouting, and a couple of dozen people scrambled frantically away from the center of the park.

As the scooter slammed down near the tables, Dan scooped up the unconscious Library in a fireman's carry. "The bad girl is yours, doll!" he suggested to his partner. "I'll get the moneybags!"

Carol didn't waste time agreeing. She exerted her will, and a yellow aura sprang from her body, bursting and shredding her civilian clothes, uncovering a revealing yellow miniskirt and boots, while leaving her surrounded with an aura that glowed like a miniature sun. 'Another set of clothes goes on the expense account,' she thought with a quick burst of amusement. She noted approvingly that the other pair of bodyguards was already carrying Quentin away, and that all she could see of the civilians who had previously been occupying the park was their backs as they raced away.

"I'm the fuse to your live wire," Carol announced herself to the villain. "Better surrender now, before you do something your lawyer can't bail you out of!" She pointed, and a ray of golden light flashed out, and a golden globe surrounded the burgundy-clad villainess.

"Can't stop me with light, honey!" Oya crowed. She reached out and touched the inside of the globe, and it vanished, seemingly sucked into her hand. She fired another burst of lightning from the same hand. "You really think you've got a fuse for this?"

The blast reflected off Sunbeam's aura and exploded as it hit the ground, peppering Sunbeam with flying dirt. Carol jumped backward reflexively, though protected by her aura, then gestured with both hands, one, two, and twin golden fists punched at Oya. With similar effects as her earlier attack; both fists simply vanished as they touched the lady in purple.

"So you can block the lightning - what about a little of your own light?" Two golden rays, the exact color of Sunbeam's own energy, lanced from Oya's fists. They glanced off Carol's aura, but she was rocked by the impact. "I can heat things up for you, too!" This time the rays from her hands were brilliant red, and the grass on the ground beneath them instantly burst into flames. Sunbeam didn't have an instant counter ready for intense heat, so she rocketed into the air out of the path of those beams - which then hit a picnic table behind her, which was flash-heated so instantly it exploded!

Even that short of an exposure was enough to cause Sunbeam to drip with sweat. A second and she would have been debilitated, a few seconds, dead! She wasn't sure exactly how she controlled her energy - so far, she had just thought about what she wanted and the energy responded. 'Cool me off!' Then, even as she was cooled off, two glowing golden hands plunged into the ground and came out with a big sphere of soil. "Hope you don't mind if I play dirty!" She slammed the sphere down on her foe like she was cracking a giant egg. Oya's radiant heat wasn't enough to melt her way through it and she was knocked roughly to the ground, where she was loosely buried under a couple hundred pounds of topsoil.

Carol hastily scooped away dirt from Oya's head - she didn't want to suffocate her unconscious foe! When the fallen villainess didn't move, Sunbeam instantly became concerned for her life, and the two glowing hands quickly dug her free. As soon as Oya was clear, the hands touching her vanished as she stopped feigning unconsciousness. Instantly, she began to glow a fiery orange.

"Unless you want to end up glowing in the dark, witch, you better take a hike!" Oya snarled. "I'm as hot as a hundred pounds of radium right now!"

Carol had no idea if her shield could stop radiation or not. She could see the grass round Oya already starting to char. "I hope you know what you're doing to yourself, babe. Don't blow yourself up - I'm leaving!" She was floating a foot off the ground, moving backwards, making sure to watch her foe.

As she drew away, the glow faded. "Don't try coming back or I'll fry you!" Oya promised with a sneering laugh. She stood up, shook herself off, and picked up first one, then the other of the fast food bags. Apparently she was satisfied with their contents, because she hopped on her flying scooter. "Don't even think of following me, or I'll be scattering blasts of radiation all over the place. Like this…"

She pointed one hand at a nearby tree, and a brightly glowing orange beam blasted out - and the tree was engulfed in orange, and all the leaves instantly withered, the branches began to wilt and the bark started to char and smoke. "Tell the cops somebody better decontaminate this place before they let people back around!"

She twisted the grip on her handlebars, the scooter lifted, and then raced away. Carol quickly created a glowing yellow dome over the tree and the mound of dirt she'd used to bury Oya. There was nothing else she could do but hope her shield blocked radiation as she tried to keep people away until someone showed up with a Geiger counter.

***~~~***

It took some scrambling to locate a Geiger counter, but one of the nearby private ambulance companies had one. The tree was somewhat radioactive, though not dangerously so, as Oya had led Carol to believe. Most of the damage to the tree had been due to intense heat - but there was enough actual radioactivity that the guy with the Geiger counter was able to confirm that Sunbeam's golden energy shield could completely block at least that low level of radiation. Doc Quentin and his bodyguards had disappeared during the confusion, and later investigation by Dan and Carol couldn't find any evidence that he had actually ever existed! The whole Kooba Kola story seemed to have been made up, just to scam Library out of a million dollars.

Library demanded his money back, but otherwise, he was just amused - his bag had been filled with counterfeit bills, real enough to fool Oya, at least for a quick look. He claimed he'd planned to pay off with real cash after he'd had the Kooba Kola tested, but now nobody would ever know. He couldn't even be charged with counterfeiting, as there was no evidence!

As for Oya, Carol's intuition told her the two would meet again!