"You confuse me, underling," said the Lord of Terror.
Well, thought Zoe, he didn't typically admit being confused, even to underlings. He must be really rattled by this problem, and she had a very good chance of making things work to her advantage. But first, she had to get the answer. Zoe explained, "If the woman is brought here, she could become Mazinga again. If there is magic involved, she could regain her robots and her desire to commit crimes."
"How does that prove whether Miss Amazing existed because of a wish?"
"Well, if the wish is an ongoing effect, then it should also affect anyone else who's brought here. So if Yukiro gets affected, she turns into Mazinga, and that proves that the wish exists."
The demonic figure grimaced, not seeming pleased. "What if it isn't?"
"If the wish isn't ongoing, if it just turned people into superheroes and then stopped, there's nothing to affect Yukiro."
"So if this mortal turns into Mazinga, that proves absolutely nothing?"
"I... er... No! They're both possibilities, and, well, a wish could work in different ways..."
"Enough! Silence!"
Of course, neither Zoe nor the Lord of Terror had realized that they didn't need to bring in Yukiro. There were other things that were different--for instance, TV signals that entered the area did not magically turn into TV signals that mentioned villains or superheroes. So there was no reason to expect a villain herself to transform either. Unless there was something special about her, like having to come into contact with a local power source....
Late on Sunday afternoon, Miss Amazing and Amazing Boy stood in the football field, and Miss Amazing threw two chess pieces on the ground. Checking her watch (which, on her costume, had turned into a band around the wrist) she waited until the right moment--and with a pop of displaced air, the chess pieces turned into the two Queens.
The white Queen started her monologue as if nothing had happened. "I've made a deal with the Queen. The world is indeed big enough for the two of us..." Then she looked around. "There's nothing here!" she said. "The demon, Zoe... and how did you guys get over there?" Even the grass seemed to have been subtly changed--unknown to her, it had grown and been mowed.
"It's two days later," said Miss Amazing. "The fight's over. Zoe's gone and we need to get her back."
The white Queen said "Three...! two...! one...! zero...!" in a cheer.
The black Queen continued "Let's go fight the super-hero!"
They both threw punches simultaneously at Miss Amazing. Miss Amazing just stood there, and their attacks bounced off. It was as if they had hit a wall.
"Sarah, Rebecca, sit down," said Miss Amazing, walking over to the benches. Against their will, the two Queens found themselves following and sitting.
"Look," said Miss Amazing as the two identical blondes listened helplessly. "I've already told the black Queen half of this anyway. I used magic; all the superheroes and supervillains were created a little over a week ago. Everything before that is a fake memory. You never got any powers, Sarah, you never used any powers, and you never had them taken from you and given to Rebecca. And neither of you ever used the powers for evil or even pranks before Rebecca here trapped me on that giant chess board. You just remember doing all of that, but it isn't real. That's why I'm not taking you to jail--because you haven't done much of anything. Yet. But anything you do from now on is real. If you commit crimes, we can send you to jail, or to Mars, or turn you into chess pieces for good, or just take your powers away. And we won't be doing it as superheroes; there isn't going to be a big fight or a chance to escape. I'll be doing it from miles away, and I've made us immune to your powers anyway."
"Wait!" said the black Queen. "How can I not be a villain?"
"What, because you're an evil twin and you have to be evil? I sort of like the idea of free will, so I fixed that. Any further evil from you is your own fault."
"It's two days later," said the white Queen. "How can we go back to school? We missed tests, we missed practice, Mom and Dad must have gone nuts looking for me."
"That is a problem," said Miss Amazing. Touching the stone, she said "I wish that except for us, everything would be what it was like if Sarah and Rebecca weren't chess pieces for the past two days, but didn't use any powers either."
"By the way," said Amazing Boy, "May I have your cell phone number?"
"Why bother?" asked Sarah. "If you have magic, you can just wish us over, right?"
"But I thought I'd be polite," said Amazing Boy. "We may need to call you to help us if there's a threat. You do live in the same world as us, after all."
"I'll tell you what, Amazing Boy" said Sarah. "If I give you my number, will you call it to ask me on a date?"
"You can ask me," said Rebecca. "My phone is an exact duplicate of Sarah's, it has the same number."
The idea was easy enough for Karyn. She could have Jon remove her mask--she wouldn't become female unless she removed it herself. But did she really want to, even if it might make a villain be more cooperative?
