Curse to lose an accomplice during combat?

[enfolder]

In Batman Munchkin:

If you are cursed during combat to lose an accomplice, and all of your accomplices are in play, do you have to lose one of them, or do you lose a level instead?

Put another way:

Once you play the accomplice in combat, do you still "have" the accomplice to discard?

Or another way:

Can someone use the "lose an accomplice" curse to force an accomplice out of combat?

[Brf]

See #12 in this topic
You could not lose an accomplice that is already in the combat.