"I wish that we knew the secret origin of Miss Amazing and Amazing Boy!" said Miss Amazing, while touching the stone.
Then Jon and Karyn knew. It happened in the school's science lab last Halloween. An accidental release of quantum energy in an unreproducible freak accident had altered probabilities around Jon, Karyn, and Sarah. All three had gained the power to become 'possible versions' of themselves who had powers and, who in Jon's and Karyn's case, were the opposite sex. They had all been wearing masks and had found that they could transform back and forth using them, but Sarah, who had no reason to ever transform to unpowered form since she didn't change sex, just got a friend to take off her mask, then burned it, and had powers until the little goth girl created the Queen (whose own mask was just a normal mask).
"There's nothing about Zoe in the origin," said Amazing Boy.
"I was afraid of that," said Miss Amazing. "A lot of superheroes have enemies whose origins have nothing to do with them. It's just coincidence that the villain gets powers when the hero does."
"Well," said Amazing Boy, "Sarah is an enemy of ours, sort of, and she did get powers during our origin."
"True, but we're trying to find out about Zoe, not Sarah. Maybe she isn't our enemy at all. Maybe the Goth girl has nothing to do with her. I wish I knew what happened to Zoe two years ago."
Nothing happened.
"Nothing..." said Amazing Boy. "Wait a minute. That means there is something strange about Zoe. Otherwise, why would she be immune to magic? Well, Jon-girl, it looks like we're going to do this the hard way. We'll just have to ask the other cheerleaders about her."
"Do you know any cheerleaders?" asked Miss Amazing.
"We know one," replied her sidekick.
Sarah and 'Rebecca' were in Sarah's room. The Queen didn't have anywhere else to go--when Jon had taken all her magic items, he had also taken away her only way to get into her lair.
At this time, Sarah was standing in front of her closet. "You know, these are my clothes," she said, blocking Rebecca's access.
"They're mine too!" said Rebecca.
"And those powers you have," said Sarah, "are mine. So we're even."
"You never did anything with them! You just shoplifted some clothes and pulled a few pranks. I used them to steal those magic items from the museum where they had lain for decades! It gave me far more power."
"And Miss Amazing took away those items. Now all you have is some strength and speed and resistance to damage. Just like Miss Amazing and Amazing Boy." (Miss Amazing originally had the power of instant costume change, but that had gone away when Jon and Karyn had wished that the mask make them change.) "If you want my stuff so badly, why don't you steal some more clothes instead of going into my closet?"
"Get out of my way, Sarah! Maybe I can't hurt you, but if you stay there we'll just both be late for school."
"Look, I'll make you a deal. How about I let you use my stuff if you help me...."
"It's great to see the famous Miss Amazing and Amazing Boy pay a visit to our school!" said the coach. The cheerleaders were all gathered around the two superheroes, some of them asking for autographs or even trying to kiss Amazing Boy, which Karyn might have liked more if she had been born male.
"Oh," said Miss Amazing, "we're just here to talk to Rebecca. Sarah's cousin. She started yesterday."
"Ah, Sarah's cousin. You know, it's amazing how much she's like Sarah."
"Like Sarah's evil twin?" volunteered Amazing Boy.
"Like Sarah's slightly more pompous twin," replied the coach.
"I wouldn't exactly call Sarah 'good' in the first place," whispered Miss Amazing to her sidekick.
Miss Amazing walked up to the Queen and asked, "Excuse me, 'Rebecca', we'd like a word with you."
"What is it?" said Rebecca. "I haven't committed any crimes. From what you showed me with the stone, any crimes I committed are just memory implants from your magic rock. Go away, please?"
"We're not here to arrest you," said Miss Amazing. "We just want to know what you know about Zoe. When she started cheerleading, had anything strange happened to her just before that?"
"All right. Well, she had been trying to go goth, she wore a lot of black... I even heard her doing some kind of chant at lunchtime once. I don't think the Goths liked her then. They said that Goths aren't into real witchcraft and if she kept trying to cast spells it would make the administration mad at everyone who wears black and that would be really bad."
"So what happened next?" asked Miss Amazing.
"The next day, Zoe applied for the cheerleading team. But the Goths had all disappeared. Nobody knows what happened to them."
"Hmm," said Miss Amazing. "That's interesting. Thank you for your time."
Miss Amazing and Amazing Boy left, but stopped just outside the stadium to discuss the problem.
Which was convenient for them. During a break, Rebecca 'accidentally' tripped Zoe. She had meant to swipe a letter that Zoe had (believing it to be a love letter from one of the football players), but did not realize that Zoe was the wrong person to pickpocket.
Zoe turned. "How dare you!" she said. "I created you!" Zoe waved a hand at Rebecca, who could barely move as bluish energy left her body and gathered into a ball in Zoe's hands. The coach and the cheerleaders, except for Sarah, fled.
Hearing the crackle of energy, Miss Amazing and Amazing Boy ran back in. "I guess this answers some of our questions," said Miss Amazing. "Stop right there, villain!" she yelled.
But then, came another intruder on the battle. A demonic black figure materialized in a cloud of smoke. It slashed at Zoe with a claw and Zoe, surprised, leaped back. The blue ball of energy broke up, part of it returning to Rebecca and part of it hitting Sarah. Zoe tried to hit the demon with a pom-pom, which was useless, but distracted it long enough for her to begin casting a spell.
The superheroes waited while the two battled. If two villains were to fight, who were they to interfere?
The demon said "The master has commanded that your ONLY task is to find out what has happened to his realm! How... DARE... YOU GO AGAINST OUR MAAAASSSTTTEERRRR!!!!" and yelled out a stream of syllables in some ancient language, ending it with "I command this to the one whose true name is Zoe Dawkins...."
Green lightning flashed from the demon's fingers. Miss Amazing considered how to help her--Zoe was her sister, after all--but there was no need. The lightning hit Zoe harmlessly, and she finished her own spell. The demon melted into a puddle of black ooze, that disintegrated into smoke. "Stupid," she said. "My name is Donaldson. You might have gotten away with using my Dad's name, Philips, but not that. Sheesh."
"Not so fast!" said Miss Amazing. She and Amazing Boy approached Zoe; meanwhile, Sarah and Rebecca were standing up--it seemed that they now both shared the same powers now...
