She blinks for range again.

It works, eventually. She's covered a lot of ground by now (again) and the projection stops pursuing.

This time, she backtracks, looking for the projector.

Without knowing the radius or even the direction, that's a tall order. The first promising-looking car parked by the edge of a road turns out to be just a breakdown. She'll spot the projection raising its face to the air and sniffing before finding the master.

"There you are. Are we playing again?"

Standing. Staring. Not charging.

"And here we came all this way to find you."

She tilts her head to one side.

"Vocalizations not in your repertoire? Then here is our offer: We return together and you tell them I passed your test, or you return alone and tell them you couldn't keep up with us because you are a projection."

The Siberian stands stock-still for indecisively long. Then she nods.

"Let us be off, then."

It takes a bit longer than the way out, since it's not a life and death hunt, but it's not a hard trip. The projection leads the way to where the others have moved to and they can walk in side by side with the Keres conspicuously not dead.

"We return." She looks around the room.

"And ended it early! That's a novel result."

"For how long does it usually last?"

"Until she decides she's had enough."

"Who is next?"

"There's a good standby for capes like you," says Shatterbird, "I decided to try putting you in solitary confinement for a while. You, singular." A floating ball of glass pushes her through a door. She barely feels, let alone sees, the prick of something sharper.

Her new surroundings are a bare room, not remarkably small but mostly taken up by a large roughly cubical glass. Very roughly; there are shards jutting out at irregular intervals. It appears almost designed to look threatening, as much as an inanimate object can.

All the more so, given the nature of the person who pushed her in.

Not that she need stay. She summons her tunneler.

No she doesn't.

A moment after she tries, the object expands.

what

she thought hatchet face was dead

No. Stop. That is not a helpful response. She's been here before, and lived through it.

The glass expanded. Not all powers in the area are blocked. It's not Hatchet Face. That slight sting- an injection? A drug by Bonesaw?

It seemed like it moved in response to her attempt at summoning a shade. Well enough, she will simply not call on any.

For a moment, nothing happens. Just a ticking clock. After a moment, nothing continues to happen.

It's a full five minutes before the unusually scary pile of glass reassembles itself into a form that takes up more space. Again.

Okay so maybe it's time-based.

She tries for a brute this time.