"I wish," said Jon, "that all the air in here would freeze, but that for the next hour, me and Karyn don't need air and aren't hurt by cold."
Suddenly the sphere was filled with what seemed to be snow, but it fell to the ground at astonishing speed, like sand--since it was frozen air, and there was no normal air left to make it fall slowly. As it fell, forming slightly bluish piles of frozen air, the Royal Flush Gang and the Delphites started to choke. Their immunity to magic didn't protect them against the absence of air. One fell face first into a pile of frozen air and his face twisted as if he was trying to scream. Frozen air was so cold that it could freeze the flesh right off of their bones.
Jon and Karyn watched as their foes choked and gasped in utter silence, because there was nothing to carry the sound to their ears. There was no breeze, because there was no air; things felt absolutely still. When Jon, walking, kicked up a leaf, the leaf went up and down in an arc as if it was a rock.
One by one their enemies died. Some tried to attack Jon in the short time available before the vacuum would affect them, but none of them had any training to deal with vacuum and as they choked and gasped their movements were incredibly clumsy.
And after their enemies were all dead, the barrier finally dropped, letting in air again. Jon and Karyn could speak again as they brushed the frozen air out of their hair and clothes, but it was too late for their foes.
"God, I did it again," said Jon. "I killed them. I had to kill them..."
"No you didn't!" said Karyn. "Not really. You have a magic stone!"
"I hope you're right," said Jon. He waved around and said "I wish that every being who just died here would be brought back to life, but couldn't disobey me or hurt me or Karyn in any way."
The four kids in the Royal Flush Gang got up. The Delphites all stayed dead--there was no way magic could bring back someone who was immune to magic.
"I wish those bodies would be buried!" said Jon. Nothing happened. "Argh. Immune to magic!"
"I wish the ground for a mile under those bodies would disappear without collapsing, then ten seconds later the ground would reappear." Instantly there was no ground, just holes down which the Delphite corpses fell....
The Royal Flush Gang prepared to run. (Meanwhile, the holes closed up, the bodies buried a mile under the surface of the Earth.)
"Stay right where you are!" yelled Jon. They stopped in place. "I wish you guys would draw a good map telling us how to get to your headquarters, and that then you'd forget about the Delphites, the Royal Flush Gang, the stone, the artifact, and any magic, and think you're the normal students you seem to be. I wish you'd then go home."
They got out several sheets of notebook paper and started drawing, gave the map to Jon, then vanished.
"So what now?" wondered Karyn. "We go to their headquarters? It probably isn't in the stone's range. It'll be hard to get there. And I bet there will be more things immune to magic."
"Not so hard," said Jon. "Just because we can't wish ourselves into the headquarters doesn't mean we can't get there." He showed Karyn the map, and they started to make their plans....
